I FIND STRANGE FOOTPRINTS ON THE BANKS OF A RIVULET--ROGALA AND I SET
OFF IN PURSUIT--WE FIND A MAN UNDER A KOOLA TREE--SURPRISE AND CAPTURE
HIM--TERROR OF OUR CAPTIVE--WE TAKE HIM TO CAMP AND DISCOVER HE IS A
CANNIBAL
ONE day I had not walked two hours when I was startled by the discovery
of two human footprints on the banks of a little rivulet. They looked
so fresh that I thought the man had been there but a short time before
me. I looked around, but saw no one, and heard nothing. I held one of
my revolvers ready to fire at sight.
I hurried back to the camp and told Rogala of my discovery. He listened
attentively, and then said with much earnestness: "I wonder if the
Bakalais of the village we left have sent a spy to see where we live
and learn what we are doing."
"No fear of that, Rogala," I said; "no Bakalai would dare to follow
the Oguizi. The man is either an elephant hunter or a runaway slave,
or a man who has fled from his tribe or village on being accused of
witchcraft."
Rogala got up and went for his gun; then he said: "Oguizi, let us go in
search of that man. We must capture him, for who knows but he may have
discovered our camp?"
Taking "Bulldog" with me, we started, Rogala whispering to me, as we
went along, the well-known caution: "Let us not make more noise than a
leopard in search of prey, or a fish swimming."
We came to the little stream where I had seen the footprints. Rogala
said to me, after he had looked at them: "This man has taken this
rivulet as a path, and followed the water."
With these words he did the same thing. I followed, and we waded down
with the current. We had not walked more than one hour when Rogala gave
a low click and pointed with his finger to a particular spot near a big
tree. Looking in that direction, I saw a man under a koola tree picking
up some of the nuts that had fallen on the ground, breaking them with a
stone, and eating them voraciously. He had evidently been starving.
We hid behind a tree, and watched silently the movements of the
stranger. We did not dare to whisper for fear of being heard.
Rogala, who was about two yards from me, came to my side, and made
a sign to move away further. He was very much excited. His forehead
was covered with perspiration. When we were at a safe distance, he
whispered: "This man is not a Bakalai; he is from a far country. I
think he has run away from his people. Let us surprise him, and if he
runs away from us I will shoot at him and kill him."
I saw by the looks of Rogala that he was in earnest.
"No, Rogala," I replied, "we must not kill him if he runs away, but try
to capture him. Then we shall find out where he comes from, and how
far off his country is. As soon as we come near him we will shout to
him to stand still. I will fire 'Bulldog,' and if he has never heard a
gun fired in his life he will be so scared that he will not move. If
he runs away, we will run after him. We are good runners, we can go
quickly through the jungle. Now let us crawl towards him; you keep on
his right, I on his left."
We walked so carefully that not one of our steps could be heard. Rogala
once moved towards me just to whisper: "Oguizi, he must not escape from
us."
We saw that the man had a bag of poisoned arrows hanging by his side,
and on the ground lay his bow.
Nearer and nearer we came to the stranger, who was busy breaking the
koola nuts, when suddenly he turned round and looked in our direction.
Fortunately we crouched in time by a fallen tree. Had he heard us? We
peeped above the tree. No, for he again began to crack koola nuts, and
was putting the kernels in a little bag. We were within ten yards of
him.
Suddenly, without a word of warning, Rogala jumped up, crossed the
stream, and uttered a terrific war-cry, running towards the man. When I
saw this, I fired "Bulldog" and ran also towards him. The poor fellow
seemed to be spellbound and unable to get up. As we came up to him, he
took hold of Rogala's feet, which meant that he put himself under his
protection, and looked at me with great terror. He trembled all over,
and could not utter a word.
I looked at him and smiled, but this did not seem to reassure him.
Rogala spoke to him in several languages that he had learned from
other slaves, but our prisoner shook his head to show that he did not
understand. Then I spoke to him in several of the languages I had
learned, but he understood me no better. Thereupon we made signs to try
to find out from where he came. At this he looked up, trying to see
from the light where the sun was. Then he pointed in the direction of
the east.
"He must be from a far-off country," I said to Rogala, "for he seems
not to understand any of the languages we have spoken to him."
Our captive was tall, and emaciated from hunger. His teeth were filed
sharp to a point, and gave him a very savage appearance. Every part of
his body except his legs was tattooed all over. On his stomach was the
representation of a crocodile, showing that he must have lived on the
shore of a lake or of a river. Upon his cheeks were spots of the size
of large peas. His forehead was also tattooed.
"We must be very watchful," said Rogala; "perhaps the man understands
some of the languages we spoke to him, after all."
Then he broke the man's bow, and buried his bag of poisoned arrows in
the ground, for fear that man or beast would be hurt by them.
Our prisoner was very much frightened when he saw this, and looked at
me with imploring eyes. He had divined instinctively that I was the
master; his looks seemed to say: "Do not kill me!"
After a pause I said: "Rogala, if our prisoner tries to run away, let
us spare his life and not shoot him; every man tries to run away from
the people he fears in search of liberty. You would do likewise if
Rotembo were not a good master."
[Illustration: "_Suddenly Rogala uttered a terrible war-cry and ran
towards the man_."]
Rogala looked at me in blank astonishment, and then said: "Oguizi, I
will not try to kill him if he runs away; but," he added, "he must not
run away."
We let our prisoner crack more koola nuts, and waited until his
appetite was satisfied; then we started for our camp, our captive
walking between Rogala, who led, and myself in the rear. Rogala had
taken the precaution to tie his hands behind his back before starting.
We walked silently, not one of us uttering a word until we came to our
palisade. Our captive then showed signs of great fear.
I told Rogala to go over first and tie Andekko, for I was sure the dog
would try to bite him. When we were all inside, we gave our prisoner a
good warm meal of plantains--a few of which still remained--and a piece
of monkey. Rogala washed his body with warm water and then rubbed it
with oil, for his skin was dried and parched; he seemed very grateful.
Soon he fell asleep on the bare ground.
Looking at him as he slept, I said to Rogala: "The poor fellow may have
been days and weeks in the forest subsisting on nuts, berries, and
fruit when he could find them, avoiding all the time the paths for fear
of coming in contact with people. For you know," I continued, "that as
soon as a man is out of his country, and comes out of his circle of
friends belonging to another tribe, he is sure to be captured and made
a slave."
"That is true," replied Rogala. "To-morrow morning we will try to learn
something about him."
Andekko did not take kindly to our new-comer, and growled at him all
the time. We agreed to watch in turn over the captive during the night,
as his bonds were not very strong. We lighted several fires round him,
and tied Andekko for fear that he might bite him.
When I awoke in the morning, I saw that he was still asleep, Andekko
watching him and growling at him now and then. I looked for Rogala, but
he was not there. I wondered where he had gone. Soon after I heard an
axe. Rogala was cutting down a tree. After a while all became silent,
and Rogala appeared before me and told me that he had cut two logs.
After he had brought these inside, Rogala went to work on a "nchogo,"
and I guessed at once that it was to keep our prisoner captive and
prevent him from running away. The nchogo is composed of two logs with
holes,--the larger one to imprison the feet, the smaller for the hands.
The poor fellow was very much frightened when he saw the nchogo. He
knew that it was for him. When I saw this, I said to Rogala: "This man
belongs to a tribe living in the great forest, for he knows what a
nchogo is. In a barren or prairie country they have no trees to make
nchogos of. But we must treat our prisoner gently, give him plenty of
food to show him that we care for him and that we are his friends. Then
in a few days, after he has got accustomed to us, we will free him from
the nchogo."
That day we gave him three meals, and ate by his side, and he saw that
we had the same food.
When evening came, I said: "Rogala, you will go to sleep while I watch."
Soon both Rogala and our prisoner were asleep. Towards two o'clock I
awoke Rogala for the watch and went to sleep myself.
In the morning I said: "Rogala, let us think over and see if you and I
have spoken to our prisoner all the languages and dialects we know."
So we began to think, and finally Rogala said: "I did not speak to him
in the Osheba language."
"Why," said I, "do you think he is a cannibal?"
"Perhaps he is," he replied.
Rogala spoke to him then in Osheba, and had uttered but a few words
when the man's face brightened up, for he found that we should be able
to understand him. He was a cannibal. There was no doubt about it.
Several days passed by. We got along very well with our captive,
although he was kept in stocks. He seemed contented with his lot. He
found that we treated him otherwise like one of ourselves. He ate with
us, and consequently had the same food. When food was very scarce, we
divided it equally among us, but of course when we had only nuts or
berries he had only these to eat, and if we were hungry he had to go
hungry also.
Several times I proposed to Rogala to take him out of the nchogo, but
Rogala was always unwilling. Thinking that he was wiser than I in this
matter, as he knew the native character better than I did, I let him
have his own way.
We had given the name of Akenda-Mbani ("never go twice to the same
place") to our prisoner, for we knew that he would never go back to his
own country.
One afternoon Shinshooko and Alapai made their appearance, bringing
with them four elephants' tusks. They had found two elephants in the
pits they had dug in the forest for the purpose of entrapping the huge
beasts.
They were very much astonished when they saw Akenda-Mbani and we told
them how we had captured him.