The two guanioniens soared nearer the ndovas, watching with their keen eyes the trees upon which they were feeding. Suddenly they saw several ndovas come to the very top of the trees. They watched with fierce and expectant eyes, swooped down with terrific speed, seized two of the biggest ndovas and rose in the air, each with his talons firmly imbedded in the back and the neck of his victim, so that he could not turn. One of the monkeys was the chief of the troop; the other was the one whose finger had been cut off by the ngozo. The eagles flew with their prey toward their tree, and the first thing they did was to tear their eyes out, and then kill them by disembowelling them. They fed first, and then, tearing off small bits, they fed their young ones with them.
It happened that not far off from where the ndovas had been carried away, on a tall tree, was the flock of ngozos which had been so badly treated by those same ndovas. They were feeding on nuts. Suddenly they heard the cries of pain uttered by the ndovas as the guanioniens rose in the air with them. Looking up, they saw the ndova whose finger had been cut off by one of them, and jabbered with joy. “Good for you, guanioniens, good for you! kill all the monkeys you can;” and in chorus, “We hate the monkeys, we hate the monkeys! we hate the ndovas more than the rest, for they have done us the most harm.”
The troop uttered fearful cries of dismay and dread when they saw that the guanioniens had been among them and had carried away their chief and one of their number. They fled in terror to some safer place.
In the evening they looked at one another with deep sorrow and mourned greatly the loss of their chief and of one of their comrades. One of the ndovas was especially sad, for it was his beloved mate that had been carried away by one of the guanioniens.
Still monkeys, parrots, and guanioniens had a good time in the Land of Plenty, and all became very fat. But the guanioniens made great havoc among the monkeys. At the foot of their trees the ground was covered with a great number of skulls and bones of those they had eaten up.
The time came at last when the fruits, berries, and nuts became scarce. They had either been eaten or had fallen to decay on the ground, and the monkeys and parrots left for other parts of the forest.
The guanioniens and their brood, who had begun to fly, also left. The old ones were going to a partly open country to teach their young how to capture prey, and then the goats and gazelles would have a bad time.
The Land of Plenty became deserted until the following year, when it would become again full of life. After their departure the parrots mated, built their nests in the hollows of the trees, and did not come together again into flocks until their young began to fly. A few flocks came at first to the old meeting-place; the same number of flocks that came in the evening went off in the morning, with the same chief. At first the flocks and their number of ngozos could be easily counted; but in a few days they became so numerous that it was impossible to number them.
CHAPTER VI
THE NIGHT ANIMALS
Strange as it may appear, in the night the great forest is more alive with animals than during the day. These night prowlers can only see well when it is dark, and the darker it is the better they can see. They generally have short legs and walk so lightly that their footsteps cannot be heard when they go through the jungle.