After changing his skin the big ombama became hungry again, and finding a suitable tree, he coiled round it and waited for prey. He saw strange sights. As he was looking round, he saw a big black and yellow tree-snake crawling near his tree, and watched him. The tree omemba stopped, and said to himself: “I am hungry. I live chiefly upon trees, and I will ascend one and will look out for a monkey, a bird, or a large squirrel if I come near enough. I look at them and try to put them under my spell, so that they will be paralyzed and will not be able to run away from me.”
Then he raised himself and coiled round the trunk of a small tree, and crawled upwards until he reached one of its branches, and then travelled from this branch to one from another tree, and so on for many trees. This was easy, for the branches were all intermingled with one another. His cunning eyes were looking everywhere as he crept along, seeking for monkeys, big birds, or squirrels. He moved so slyly that he did not make the slightest noise, even less than the wind passing through the branches. Suddenly he saw a monkey quite by himself. He crawled toward the poor monkey as fast as he could, and at last came near enough to coil himself up without being detected. This he was obliged to do as a preliminary, since the omembas cannot spring upon their prey except when they are coiled up, for when they are extended to their full length they have no power.
He looked at the monkey intently, and, as it were, magnetized the poor creature, who looked at him in the greatest terror. The eyes of the ombama never left him. He was charming his prey, and said, “Now I am going to charm the monkey, and he will then be unable to escape me.” The omemba glided toward the monkey, and when he had come near enough, he sprang upon him quicker than an arrow flying through the air and coiled round him in the twinkling of an eye, and his coils soon crushed the life out of him.
After his meal the omemba came down the tree, having found a comfortable place where he thought himself safe, and fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke he felt like taking a bath, and went to a beautiful clear limpid stream, and after a swim coiled himself round the branch of a tree under water, after which he went in search of prey again, as he had done during all the days of his life.
The big ombama had also succeeded in capturing a big ncheri, and after his meal fell asleep in the midst of a mass of dead leaves that were more or less of the color of his skin.
It happened the next day that a rogue elephant, who was wandering all alone, passed near the big ombama. The njokoo became angry at the sight of him. He advanced toward him and trampled upon him several times until he was dead. Then he uttered sharp trumpetings of satisfaction for what he had done. The njokoos hate serpents and trample upon them whenever they can.
CHAPTER XXVI
THE NTOTO, OR ICHNEUMON
A ntoto, with his elongated weasel-like form, stretched his short legs, and, looking at his dirty reddish-brown spotted skin, as he lay in the hollow of his tree, said: “Many kinds of ntotos inhabit this great forest where I was born. How we ichneumons hate these horrid creeping crawling creatures, the omembas! We kill them every time we have a chance. We show them no mercy, for often when we starve it is owing to them. They eat the prey upon which we feed. We are not even afraid of the biggest of them,—those that feed on kambis, ncheris, or ngoas.”
Leaving his place, he walked along slowly through the jungle, and listened, hoping to hear the noise made by omembas crawling among the fallen leaves. After a short ramble, he saw among the leaves one of the worst kind of omembas inhabiting the forest. He was short and very thick, with a skin much the color of the soil and leaves. He had a large triangular-shaped head, with a short horn rising from the end of his nose. His mouth possessed terrible fangs surrounded by bags filled with most deadly poison, which cause death in a very short time.