SNAKES BY NIGHT.
At length I wrapped myself well in my blanket and went to sleep. But lo! in the middle of the night I was awakened by the cackling of one of the fowls, which was tied by the leg to a stick we had put on the ground. I popped my head out of my musquito-net, when I beheld by the glow of the fire an enormous python (or snake), a tremendous big fellow, who had just come out of the water and was about to gobble up one of the two fowls, and would have swallowed both of them if it had had time to do so. No others were aroused by the noise the fowls made, so I quietly took my gun that laid alongside of me, and sent two loads into the python, which settled him.
My men jumped up in alarm, seized their guns, and looked as warlike as possible. They thought we were attacked unawares by some Oroungou fellows, and set up a wild yell of defiance, which was responded to by a most hearty laugh on my part. In the mean time the defeated boa had moved about in the midst of us and sent all the fellows off, just as they were asking, “Who has been killed by that gun?” and I shouted in reply, “This enormous snake.”
My two Apingi fellows’ eyes brightened as they thought of the good food they were going to have, and said—“Ah! ah! if we had only known we should have brought a cooking-pot of our own; we would have had such nice snake-broth all the time!” This snake measured almost sixteen feet in length, and would have kept the fellows in broth for a long while.
We went to sleep again, leaving the two Apingis busily engaged in cutting the boa into small pieces and in roasting some of it over the fire.
The next morning when I awoke the sun was bright; a kind of vapor was rising from the waters of the Delta of the Ogobai, and all Nature was still. I could not hear the song of a single bird or the chatter of a single monkey; now and then a fishing-eagle passed over our heads, and the whole scene presented was one of desolation.
We cooked our breakfast, and immediately after our meal we again set out and soon entered a very narrow creek—so narrow in some places that the trees on the two banks were so close together that we had trouble in passing through with our canoe; in one place I thought it would be utterly impossible.
At last we emerged into the waters of the Npouloulay and soon after found ourselves on the broad and placid waters of the Fernand Vaz, coming in sight of my settlement at Washington.
A thrill of joy filled my heart when I saw my little settlement, for I was tired and worn out, and I needed a little rest—a little comfort in a plain way. I wanted to see my plantation, to see how it had grown since we parted, and if my stock of fowls had increased by new broods, or I could get a little milk from my goats. Then I wanted to see good King Ranpano and his brother Rinkimongani and all the good folks of Biagano. They were there on the shore ready to receive me. They were honest, straightforward people.
