Early the next morning the two vultures left the tree where they had spent the night, to return for the rest of the kambi meat. They felt very happy at the prospect of getting an early breakfast, and said to each other, “We will not leave this neighborhood until we have eaten all the flesh, and this will take us several days.”
Great indeed was their disappointment when they reached the place and saw nothing but the bare bones of the kambis; they looked at them and walked slowly around them, but not a bit of flesh was to be seen. “Oh,” said the vultures, “these horrid hyenas have been here during the night, and have eaten everything. They have not even left a morsel for us;” and they rose, soaring high in the air in their beautiful flight to see if they could discover elsewhere the remains of some dead animal.
CHAPTER XLIII
THE NSHIEYS, OR FISH, AND THEIR ENEMIES
As the dry season was approaching, many of the fish of the sea said to one another: “It is time for us to go to the rivers of the great forest where we were born, for the dry season is at hand, and the time is coming for us to lay our eggs.”
One of the habits of many fish of the sea is that throughout their lives they always go back year after year to the river in which they were born. This pilgrimage takes place during the dry season when the rivers are clear, the current less swift, and the water lower. The fish know the seasons as well as birds.
When the fish in shoals began their migration towards the coast, they knew their way well through the depths of the sea to those rivers just as if they had had a star to guide them. They also had landmarks, for the bottom of the ocean has tall mountains, hills, narrow and broad valleys, just like the surface of the earth; it has also varied forests and growths such as seaweeds, coral trees, etc.
While the fish swam along the shore they recognized the rivers from which they had originally come, and ascended these, while other fish that followed in their wake continued to swim along the coast farther on until they came to their own river. Not all that started reached their destination. They were much diminished in numbers, the bigger fish having gobbled up many on the way.
When the fish were on their migration, many birds who prey on fish, frogs, and other creatures, and who were in far away lands, said in their turn: “Now it is about time for us to begin our yearly journey to the rivers and lagoons of the great forest, for the fish are coming there, and the ponds in the prairies by the sea are going to be dry or shallow, and it will be easy for us to catch our prey.”
Among the birds that thus spoke were large long-legged cranes and storks, also fishing eagles, herons, flamingoes, ibis, many pelicans, and the ugly marabouts who have so many fine feathers.