The snake was preparing to coil round the kingfisher when suddenly the bird flew after one of the little fish, succeeded in capturing it, and then flew away with his booty to another tree.
Great indeed was the wrath of the snake when he saw that his prey had escaped him, and he said angrily: “I was sure of a breakfast, but it has flown away and nothing is certain till one gets it; but I will wait here, for surely the kingfisher will come back.”
He waited and waited, but the pretty little kingfisher did not return. Little did the latter know that he owed his life to the shoal of little fish upon which he had preyed.
CHAPTER XLVIII
THE OBONGOS, OR DWARFS
Strange-looking small human beings, almost as singular as the men of the woods, were one day talking together near some diminutive houses, looking somewhat like beehives covered with very large leaves. These houses had openings or doors which were so low and small that these creatures had to lie flat on their stomachs and crawl in like snakes when they wished to enter. They had just returned with rough-looking baskets filled with berries, nuts, and fruits which they had gathered that day.
These little people were the dwarfs, or pigmies, living in the great African forest, and were called obongos. They varied in height from about three feet eight or nine inches to four feet two to four inches. They were all taller than their houses.
Their complexion varied from that of light yellow to a muddy clay color, like that of the nkengos; a few were darker. They were shaped like big people, had feet and hands like theirs; but their feet were more flexible, yet not so much so that they could be used as hands, like those of the men of the woods. They were all lightly built; there was not a corpulent one among them. They had not the straight hair of the men of the woods. Their heads were covered with little tufts of reddish woolly hair, each tuft being separate. Some had also the same tufts of hair upon their bodies.
After a while other obongos came with more food, until there were about fifty of them together. They told what they had seen during the day and the places where food was plentiful.
They had an old chief with cunning but kindly features. They spoke a language more distinct than that of the men of the woods, but their words were difficult to make out. The dwarfs seated themselves on the ground, cross-legged, round a big fire that they had lighted by rubbing two pieces of very dry wood against each other.
After a while, a wise dwarf said to the others, who listened to him eagerly: “Strange it is that we dwarfs partake of two natures,—one that of the big human beings inhabiting the forest, and the other that of the men of the woods. We partake of the nature of the men of the woods in that we never plant or sow anything; we live on the berries, fruits, nuts, and canes of the forest; we have to roam through the forest like them in search of food; our shelters are of leaves like theirs; we have to shift our abode as they do, for after a few days we have eaten all the food around us.