Some ngooboos were now seen ascending and descending the river, going to their respective landing-places, for they are accustomed to land at the same spot every night and follow the path they have made.
After the ngooboos had approached their landing-places, they swam silently to and fro, to see if they could scent any danger. Once in a while the subdued snort of the leader was heard, saying, “Not yet, we must wait a little while. We must make sure that the coast is clear,”
At last a very peculiar snort was heard by the followers of the leader, signifying, “Now be ready, we are going to land.” And all the ngooboos swam silently toward him after they heard this.
Then the old leader, who had led them many a time, landed, and entered the path. Each ngooboo landed in turn, and they all followed him in single file, going to the place where they pastured.
One of the great faculties possessed by the ngooboos, as well as by most if not all the ruminant animals, is that they can see as well during the night as they do during the day.
The moon had just risen, and threw its dim light upon the ngooboos, as they walked silently following their leader, their huge bodies looking strange as they walked in single file. They appeared like supernatural creatures wandering in the prairie.
The mboyos (jackals) and the hyenas, as they scented the huge creatures, said, “Let us keep out of the way of the ngooboos,” and made off. After proceeding a few miles, the ngooboos reached their browsing place of the day before. As they were eating, the big ngooboo, their leader, gave two or three gentle snorts, which meant, “Look yonder far away, there is a herd of niarés [buffaloes].” All the ngooboos looked and saw the buffaloes and said: “We are not afraid of the buffalo; they cannot toss us in the air as they do njegos or human beings. Next to the njokoos, we are the heaviest and biggest creatures of this land. Besides, their horns are so placed on their heads that they cannot pierce our bodies. We are not afraid of them, for their way of fighting is to charge and toss. If these buffaloes dare to attack us, we will lacerate and cut their bodies with our crooked and sharp tusks.”
At the same time they all opened their mouths and laughed. Ugly and formidable indeed were their tusks, which weighed four and five pounds each. Then they gave grunts of defiance which the buffaloes heard, and straightway walked off, saying, “The ngooboos are coming our way, but we can run faster than they, and they cannot catch us.” They also laughed in their turn and said, “Catch us if you can, ngooboos, with your clumsy bodies and short legs. You will get tired before we do.”
The ngooboos continued to pasture, enjoying their night meal. That night the grass seemed very juicy and good to them. Suddenly they stopped browsing. They scented danger. They looked in the direction where the scent came from and saw coming from a cluster of trees a large herd of njokoos. The leader grunted, saying to his followers: “Here are the njokoos. How ponderous and powerful they are! How small we are compared with them! No creatures possess such strength. They can also walk or run much faster than we can, for their legs are longer than ours. Look at the huge tusks of some of them.”
Soon the leader, who had been attentively observing the herd of elephants, said: “The njokoos are coming our way. Let us go back as fast as we can to our river, for we cannot fight the njokoos on land; they would charge and pierce us with their big tusks and kill us.”