The world of the great forest

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

“But,” he added, “I hope the nginas will not make their appearance when we are here, for we cannot fight them, they are so strong. We shall have to give way to them, otherwise they would break our ribs with a blow of their strong arms and kill us.”

The sun had just set. It was getting dark in the forest. The nkengos ascended two trees and bade each other good-night. Early the following morning they explored the country farther and continued to meet with plenty of nuts, fruits, and a few berries, and some nice juicy canes. Before noon, they stopped and said: “This country is good; food is plentiful; let us build our bowers here, for we shall have food all around us.”

The two trees they were looking for were not so easy to find. They had to be almost side by side. After a tedious search the big nkengo found them. He called aloud for his mate, who answered him, then shouted to her that he had found the trees they were in search of. The first transverse limbs of these trees were high up (at least twenty-five or thirty feet above the ground), and there was no jungle round them. These limbs upon which they could build their bowers were covered with branches, strong and slender, which they could twist together. After looking at them, the big nkengo said to his mate who had come up, “The leopards will not be able to climb these trees, and the big omembas will not be able to crawl from other trees to ours.” They each ascended one of the trees and began to make their own bowers by intertwining their branches. They made them in the shape of a slightly hollow dish, put leaves inside, and when they were ready, they said to each other, “What fine bowers we have made! We could not have found better trees. How well we shall sleep in them!” Then they gave peculiar guttural sounds, such as the nkengos make when they are satisfied. That night they slept soundly.

Early in the morning they awoke and greeted each other by saying, “Whoe, whoe,” which meant something like “Good-morning.” Then they said, “Our bowers were rather hard last night, but in two or three days the branches will have bent to our shape.”

They descended and came toward each other. That day they had not far to go to get food, for some of the trees close to their new home were loaded with fruit. They ascended these by catching their lower branches with their hands and holding fast, then pulling themselves up with their muscular arms. They ate so much that they had to lie down on their backs in their bowers and take a good rest. In the afternoon they went out for another meal, and did not return until sunset.

The following day the nkengos, having found a great deal of food, returned to their bowers earlier than usual, for, like all the men of the woods, when they have no appetite to stir them up, they are very lazy and like either to stay in one place or loiter about.

As they were ready to ascend their trees, suddenly the old nkengo said to his mate, “Listen! listen!” The countenances of the two changed immediately; they stood up; they became all ears, and their faces wore a peculiar wild, anxious look.

The old nkengo was right. They heard an unusual, strange noise, as if all the tops of the trees were being shaken by a strong wind. This strange noise became more distinct as it approached. Louder and louder it grew, and they recognized the footsteps of the elephants tramping through the jungle. The njokoos were coming toward them. They ascended their trees quickly, and in a short time a herd of njokoos passed at full speed by them. They stood silent as they looked upon the monsters, and finally said to each other, “The njokoos seem to be in a panic; but why?”

Their anxiety was not removed, for they found out that the tramping of the njokoos had only drowned the noise made by other animals. Then they said to each other, “The bashikouay ants are coming our way; they are on the war path; the creatures of the forest are fleeing before them. Let us also flee and get out of their way.” They descended and fled on all fours, for with their great bulky bodies they could not make their way from branch to branch like the monkeys. But on the ground they could run very swiftly and cover more space in a given time than the monkeys.