The world of the great forest

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

The old nkengo listened attentively. Then after his mate had stopped, he replied: “Truly, you give me strange news. Are you sure it was not a nkengo like ourselves?”

“Yes,” she replied; “I am sure this strange creature was not a nkengo.”

“How sure are you,” he asked again, “that he was not one of these human beings that we see sometimes in our forest?”

“No,” she answered; “the human beings we see have not that color, neither have they long black hair like his. He had their shape, but his body was not like theirs or ours.”

No wonder that the nkengo had been astonished and frightened in seeing the pale-faced human being, with long shaggy hair hanging over his shoulders, for he was the first of his kind that had entered the heart of the big forest. His face had color before he came to that land of trees, but fever, hunger, and all kinds of hardships had taken that color away and made his face lemon-yellow and pale as that of the nkengos.

His country was in the west, toward the north, across the great sea, and had snow and ice, winter, spring, summer, and autumn, instead of a rainy and dry season and summer all the time. The stick the nkengo thought he carried, was his gun, and the clap of thunder she heard, was when he fired that gun; the whistle and the thing that struck the tree was the bullet he had fired at her. His black feet without toes were his shoes. What covered his body was his clothes. He had come to that forest to see the wonderful animals that lived in it, and to study their habits and those of the wild human beings. His name was Paul.

The two nkengos were much disturbed during the night, for they could not sleep, and were thinking all the time of the human being with a pale face like theirs, and of his long dark hair and the thunder that came out of the stick.

The following morning, after they had come down from their respective bowers and trees, they walked for a little while together, and then separated to go after berries, nuts, and fruits, for there were not enough of these together for the two. They agreed to keep near each other. So now and then their voices could be heard calling out as they moved along in the great forest.

The big nkengo found a place with trees full of nuts and called to his mate to come and partake of the feast. When they met they were glad and had a grand time eating nuts. When they could eat no more, it was about time to return to their bowers, which were distant about half a day’s journey. On their way back, they met a very old nkengo with a face full of furrows and wrinkles. He was so old that he had lost all his teeth but five. He was stiff with rheumatism and pain and could hardly walk. “How are you, dear old nkengo?” they inquired with looks of pity on their faces.