One dwarf also discovered fresh footprints of a njego; and when he told his comrades of it, they said: “We must keep our fires burning bright all night, so that the njegos will be afraid to come near. The only way for us to avoid the nginas and njegos, and to make them flee, is to make a great noise.” Accordingly they made all the racket they could, and then slept surrounded by big fires.
The following day they travelled from early morning, and in the afternoon came to a region full of berries, nuts, and fruits, and noticed that the country was full of game.
That day one of the squads found the skull of a full-grown male ngina. It was fearful to behold, it looked so fierce with all its teeth grinning in its jaws. Another squad found the skull of a little ngina, and they took it with them also.
When they laid these before the whole company of dwarfs, they all shouted: “Now, nginas, you will eat no more of our fruits, berries, and nuts.” Then they reflected that perhaps these nginas had come to their death by stepping upon the point of poisoned arrows that had been planted in the ground by some other colony of dwarfs; for it is their custom sometimes when they fear enemies at night to do so near their settlement; but it is very seldom they do this, and then they know exactly where these are laid, since they might step upon them themselves.
Examining the skull of the big ngina, they said, “The nginas have the same number of teeth that we have, but how strong theirs are;” and they wondered at the big ridge at the top of the skull,—which space, when the ngina is alive, is covered with muscles attached to the lower jaw, that give him such tremendous biting power.
Then they looked at the little head and counted its teeth and said: “These young nginas have the same number of teeth that our children have before they get their second set.”
They agreed to go a little farther the next day, and, if the country proved good, to stop there and build their houses.
The dwarfs went to sleep very happy, for there was a good prospect of food before them.
Early the following morning they were exploring the forest. At noon, when they met, they all agreed that the country was good, and there was much food. They looked for a place near a spring to build their new houses.
They went to the forest to collect material. They took machetes and queer-looking axes with them which they had got from the big people. They came back after a while with many long slender saplings, the kind that could be bent without breaking, large leaves, short sticks for beds,—in a word, all the building material they needed. After depositing these on the ground, they returned for more. When they had collected enough, they began to make their houses. They bent the slender branches of trees in the shape of a bow and put each end in the ground.