“How long have you been living here?”
“Two moons. Soon we leave. More fruit, berries, tortoises, and monkeys in new place.”
Nomusa suddenly remembered Dube. “You like monkeys?” she asked hopefully.
“Ay, very good to eat!”
It was time to go. Many of the small people came to look at the visitors curiously. Nomusa noticed that, like the men, the women wore no ornaments, beads, or bracelets.
Nomusa had a final question for the Pygmy. “How many wives do Pygmy men have?”
He looked shocked, then amused. “How many? One, of course.”
Now Nomusa really felt sorry for these people. She realized how very poor the Pygmies were, for among the Zulus it was only a poor man who had but one wife.
Their guide was ready to take them back to their camp. The Pygmies waved a friendly farewell to their visitors. One woman gave Nomusa a present—a huge dried beetle, the largest Nomusa had ever seen.
With no load to carry, the Pygmy guide sped through the forest so quickly that Nomusa and Sikhulumi had to run to keep up with him. He no longer bothered to look back to see if they were following. Perhaps he thought that anyone who had been over the ground once would surely know it again.