“The poor njokoo fled for his life”
All the abodes of the night prowlers that were in the way of this great army were visited, and the young destroyed. Some of the old ones even fell victims to the bashikouays. Onward they went. During the night they reached a village where there were no human beings. They had all left for their plantation. The bashikouays swarmed into every house, attacked and overpowered the rats, mice, centipedes, scorpions, spiders, lizards, and the many cockroaches that were there, and when they went away not one of these was left. All had been devoured.
Farther on they entered another village. Here the human beings were fast asleep. The terrible bites of the bashikouays soon awoke them. “The bashikouays have come!” shouted the people. The women seized their helpless little babies, and the fathers their little children, otherwise they would have been overpowered and devoured by the bashikouays.
In haste the inhabitants lighted fires everywhere across the street down which the invading army came, and brought burning brands, hot ashes, etc., to burn the invaders, and poured boiling water upon them. One man who was bedridden was surrounded by hot ashes and burning brands; otherwise, he would have been eaten up, and in less than two hours his bones would have been all that was left of him.
Before daylight this attacking column was thoroughly disorganized, and entered the forest, for they knew that the sun was coming.
The chiefs and officers had the greatest trouble, and it required great genius to reform the scattered host into a solid column. The loss of life during the raid of the bashikouays had been very great.
After the raid, the tract of forest where the bashikouays had passed was deserted. The animals who afterward dared to go back to their lairs or burrows saw only the bones of their little ones.
When the bashikouays disappeared, no one in the forest could tell whether they had reformed their army column, where they had gone, or if they had entered once more into the bowels of the earth.