“We partake of the nature of the human beings in this: we can make fire and enjoy it; we cook our food; we make traps to snare game; we use weapons, such as iron spears, bows and arrows, and axes; we know how to poison arrows; we can smoke; we can make intoxicating drinks, and can get drunk; we can learn the language of the big people and speak it, and the big people can also learn our language.”
After a short silence, another wise dwarf said: “What has been said is true. But we do not know how to work iron; the spears we get from the big people, and everything else that is made of iron; the intoxicating drinks we have learned from them also; what we smoke is planted by them; our pottery is of their make.
“Do not the young men of the woods that are captured by the big human beings learn to drink intoxicating drinks as we do, to eat cooked food, and even to smoke, when they keep them long enough with them? Do they not enjoy the heat of the fire as well as we do? Do they not steal plantains or other food, and learn that it is wrong to do so, after they have been flogged for it? Do they not prefer a soft place to sleep on instead of a hard one? I tell you the men of the woods can learn many of the ways of the human beings.”
“That is so!” shouted all the dwarfs at the same time. “The men of the woods can learn the ways of the human beings. You are right! you are right!”
Then the dwarfs put more wood on the fire. How strange the dwarf women appeared! How tiny were their little babies! The dwarfs began to eat the food they had brought, and after their meal lingered near the big fire; then other fires were lighted in different places among the green leafy dwellings. Gradually, one after another, they entered their houses by crawling on their stomachs, taking lighted brands to light fires inside.
That night there was a big storm; the claps of thunder were terrific; the lightning pierced through the forest. It rained in torrents. So the dwarfs, now and then, went out of their leafy houses to see that the fires were not extinguished; for they did not want any ferocious njego to come among them and carry away one of their number.
They were up at break of day, and hurried to the forest in search of food, for fear they should come too late and that the men of the woods and ngoas might be on the spot before them. The women followed with their tiny babies. They had to travel quite a way before they came to the food ground, for they had been in their settlement for over eight days. When they reached the spot, they saw that no creatures had been before them. So they were glad and ate to their hearts’ content.
Some climbed trees to seek nuts, berries, or fruits; others were on the ground looking for them. They all filled their baskets. They returned home quite a while before sunset, and talked, ate, and warmed themselves by the fires, after which they retired. They bemoaned the lack of game. The traps and snares they had laid were empty. They said: “These horrid bashikouay ants must have been in this region before we came. As for the monkeys, we do not know what has become of them.”
The following day they started, as usual, very early for the feeding ground; but it took them a much longer time to go, for every day it was farther off. When they got there, they found that some men of the woods, even some boars and monkeys, had been before them, and they were angry, shouting, “The horrid creatures have eaten our food! How often they play such tricks upon us!”
Like all the rest, the dwarfs thought that the berries, nuts, and fruits grew for them alone, and belonged to them, and that the other creatures of the forest had no business to eat them. Fortunately, the poor dwarfs had saved food, and they had plenty to eat when they returned to their settlement; but they were not in the best of humor.