But an hour or two afterward, they slackened their speed and stopped, walking leisurely on the branches of trees. They were hungry, and began to eat the food they had stored in their pouches. These were so full that they had to use their hands outside to press out the pieces of nuts.
After this they continued their journey, and when it was nearly sunset stopped, and prepared for their night’s rest. Some quarrelled for places. But soon all were seated comfortably on their haunches with their legs bent, their heads gradually fell on their breasts, and they were ere long fast asleep. They remained undisturbed the whole of the night.
Early the following day the ndovas were again on the march. During the day, while they were resting and chattering, the whistling of several arrows was heard among them, and two of their number were pierced and killed and fell to the ground with a great crash. All the ndovas, giving a cry of alarm, fled with the greatest speed. They knew that those arrows had been shot by human beings, for several of their number had been killed in that manner before. They were not afraid of the apes, or “men of the woods,” but they knew well what human beings were like, and every time they saw them they fled.
Having run a long way, they stopped. They were all sad and mourned greatly the death of their two companions. The chief said, “We never know where these human beings are lying in wait for us. They are so sly. They are under trees on which we feed before we know it, and often they take us unawares, though we watch and are on the lookout for them.”
After a pause another wise ndova said: “Next the human beings our greatest enemy is the guanionien. He swoops down upon us, seizes us in his powerful claws, carries us up in the air, and then alights upon a tree and devours us. How we dread him! He is worse than a human being. We have to be constantly on the lookout for him, for we can never scent him, and before we know it one of us is carried away. So we have to watch above our heads for the guanioniens, and under the trees for the human beings. Fortunately there are not very many of these horrid guanioniens.”
A third ndova, after listening to this, asked: “What about the big tree snakes? Has no one seen one of them after us on this journey?”
“Here is a huge manga”
In the course of the day the ndovas came to a stream and followed its banks until it became narrow enough for them to leap to the other side.
They stopped to rest on a tree overlooking the river, when suddenly they spied a strange creature swimming along the banks. At first they could only see his head. “Here is a huge manga [manatee],” said the chief of the ndovas to his followers. “He is feeding on the leaves of the trees that hang with their branches touching the water. Look at him! how big he is! [the monster weighs sometimes fifteen hundred pounds]. What a clumsy animal! He is eating leaves, and yet he never gets out of the water, never lands on the shore. How small his eyes are!”