THE TRAIL OF THE ELEPHANT
The farms around the village were good to have, but the real storehouse
of the people was the forest. The forests of the Congo form one of the
largest tree-clad regions of the world. More rubber vines are found
there than in any other place.
Yams, plantains, and pineapples grow wild in the forest. Coffee now
grows wild in many parts of Africa, although it was not till 1876 that
Scotch planters brought the first coffee tree to Africa, from the
Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. Cotton grows without being cultivated and
is sometimes woven on native looms; but lately the cloth from overseas,
that is sold in twelve-yard pieces by the traders, is much more popular.
Among the things grown on the farms are cassava, maize, rice, peanuts,
sweet potatoes, bananas, beans, sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee, according
to the nature of the soil. Rubber is almost the only product that sells
for a price which makes it worth while to carry it two days’ journey to
a market.
Ivory is in great demand by traders, but when an elephant is killed
the ivory belongs to the king of the country. He has his workmen and
artists make it into carved and ornamented articles. When the king
dies, all this collection of carved ivory is destroyed; for this reason
carved ivory that a trader can buy is rare in Equatorial Africa. Much
uncarved ivory is also hoarded.
The people of Mpoko’s village traded rubber, palm oil, and sometimes
raffia. They were now getting ready for a great journey to the trading
station far down the river. All the river villages would share in this
expedition, and there would be perhaps one hundred and fifty men in
all. One chief might go himself, with as many men as were needed to
carry his goods; another would send a trusted man in charge of ten or
fifteen porters; another might send his men with their loads in charge
of a friend, and so on. So strong a company would be able to travel
through the wilderness without much fear of wild beasts or of human
enemies.
In a great part of wild Africa, slave-raiding has always gone on more
or less, and the forest paths are never really safe. Mpoko and Nkunda
had heard their mother tell of a little sister of her own who was
sent to the market four miles away to buy a saucepan, and on the way
home, straying from the party with whom she went, had been lost and
never again heard of. There were people they knew who had been slaves
themselves, or had lost a mother, father, or friend in this way. A
person carried off by the slave trader would never be able to get home
again or to find people who talked his own language. There are no maps,
no letters, no police, no common language in these wild places. A great
shadow is over all the land, the shadow of constant danger.
[Illustration]
All things considered, the beasts of the forest are less feared than
human enemies. In all the Alo Man’s stories, the animals behaved as
they did in the old days when the world was new and there was order in
the land. Each tribe had its king; the elephant, of course, was king
of the large animals; the largest of the eagles was king of the birds;
a certain large fish was king of the fishes; and there was a king also
of the locusts and one of the ants.
But for all that he was the king of the largest animals, the Elephant
did not always get the better of the others, as is shown in the story
of the Elephant and the Rabbit. The Alo Man had been watching the boys
playing at trading; suddenly he began to tell the story.
* * * * *
The Rabbit said to the Elephant [The Alo Man began], “Let us go into
partnership.”
“But I am so much stronger than you,” said the Elephant.
“And I am so much more nimble than you,” said the Rabbit.
[The children began to laugh, for that was exactly how the boys had
argued when they began to quarrel in their game. They all gathered
about the Alo Man to hear the story, and soon everybody felt quite
good-natured.]
After a great deal of talk the Rabbit and the Elephant decided to
become partners, and sell nuts, manioc root, and bananas.
“I am carrying a much larger load than you are,” said the Elephant.
“But I go so much faster than you do,” said the Rabbit, as he skipped
along under his small load.
After a while they came to a river, and the Rabbit, who does not like
to wet his feet, asked the Elephant to carry him across. The Elephant,
however, said that he had a heavy enough load already, and he waded
into the river.
“Oh, very well,” said the Rabbit, cheerfully, and finding a shallow
place he hopped from one rock to another until he reached the far side.
When they came to the village, the people were glad to see the Rabbit,
but they were afraid of the Elephant because he looked so cross.
“What will you give me for my nuts?” asked the Rabbit.
“We will give you these cowries,” said the people, and they took all
his nuts. But they bought very little from the Elephant.
It was the same everywhere. The Elephant growled and grumbled, and
rocked from one side to the other, and had very little success, while
the Rabbit sold all his wares at good prices. In the end the Rabbit had
a large bag of cowries and the Elephant had only a little one.
When they started home, the Elephant said: “It is not right for you to
have the large bag and for me to have the small one. If any one should
ask you, say that the large bag is mine.”
“Very well,” said the Rabbit.
Soon they met some travelers, and when the travelers saw the two bags
of cowries, they asked the Rabbit if the large one was his, and when he
said it was, they laughed. After they had passed by the Elephant said,
“I told you to say that the large bag was mine.”
“Oh, yes, so you did,” said the Rabbit. “I forgot.”
The Elephant was growing more and more angry, and he said to himself,
“What if I leave him to travel alone with his big bag of cowries? We
shall see how long he will keep it.”
At the next bend in the trail the Elephant turned aside into the
forest. Soon he met a Lion, and said to him, “A Rabbit back there is
traveling alone with a large bag of cowries.”
[Illustration]
“Good!” said the Lion. “I will eat that Rabbit and carry off his
treasure,” and away he bounded through the forest.
Then the Elephant met a Buffalo, and said to him, “A silly little
Rabbit back there has a large bag of cowries.”
“That is very pleasant,” said the Buffalo. “I will kill that Rabbit and
steal his treasure,” and off he trampled through the swamp.
Soon the Elephant met a Hyena, and said to him, “There is a foolish
young Rabbit all alone back there with a great bag of cowries.”
“How kind of you!” said the Hyena. “I will crack the bones of that
Rabbit and get his treasure,” and off he trotted across the plain.
Meanwhile the Lion and the Rabbit had met.
The Lion gave a great roar and was making ready to spring, when the
Rabbit said gayly, “How have you slept, Uncle? I am going to the great
feast that the King of the Monkeys is giving, and I shall buy good
things with some of these cowries. Don’t you want to come, too?”
The Lion thought that it would be much better to attend this feast than
to eat a few mouthfuls of Rabbit; so he said, “Thank you, I shall be
proud to go with you,” and they trotted along together.
Then the Buffalo came crashing through the bushes with his horns
lowered, but the Rabbit said gayly, “Have you slept well, Uncle? I am
going to the great feast that the King of the Monkeys is giving, and
I shall buy good things with some of these cowries. Don’t you want to
join us?”
The Buffalo thought that it would be much better to attend this feast
than to gore the Rabbit; so he said, “Thank you, I shall be proud to go
with you,” and they all went on together.
Then the Hyena slunk out of the tall grass and showed his teeth, but
the Rabbit said gayly, “I hope you have slept well, Uncle. I am going
to the great feast that the King of the Monkeys is giving, and I shall
buy good things with some of these cowries. Will you not come with us?”
The Hyena thought that it would be much better to attend this feast
than to pick the bones of a small Rabbit; so he said, “Thank you, I
shall be proud to go with you,” and all four went on in company.
When they reached the forest where the King of the Monkeys lived, the
Rabbit asked them to wait while he told the King who had come to his
feast. He found the King of the Monkeys, and told the whole story and
asked for help.
When the other three animals came up, the King of the Monkeys welcomed
them graciously, and said to the Lion, “The feast is ready except for
certain small things. Will you do me the favor to find me a log with
smooth bark? That is the only sort of wood that will roast the meat
which we shall serve at this feast.”
Off bounded the Lion to find a log with smooth bark.
“And you,” he said to the Buffalo, “will you do me the favor of finding
some young banana leaves that have fallen? Then we shall have suitable
plates for the meat when it is cooked.”
Off galloped the Buffalo to find some young leaves fallen from a banana
tree.
“And you, Uncle,” said the King to the Hyena, “will you do me the favor
of finding a spring with spouting water? That is the only kind of water
in which we can boil the vegetables.”
Off ran the Hyena to find a spring of spouting water.
All night the three animals hunted and could not find what they had
been sent to get, and in the morning they came back very tired and
humble.
“You do not seem to care to come to my feast,” said the King of the
Monkeys, severely.
“I hunted all through the forest,” said the Lion, licking his paws.
“I sat under banana trees all night long,” said the Buffalo, shivering.
“I watched the mouth of the spring until the moon went down,” said the
Hyena, yawning as if his jaws would break in two.
“You lazy fellows, I have heard enough of your excuses!” shouted the
King of the Monkeys, and all the Monkeys, who had gathered above in
the trees, began to throw down sticks and large nuts and to chatter so
fiercely that the Lion, the Buffalo, and the Hyena started out of the
forest at full speed and never came back. Then the King of the Monkeys
and the little Rabbit laughed and laughed and laughed, until they were
tired.
But sometimes, even now, when the Lion, the Buffalo, and the Hyena
meet, they discuss the question whether there is any such thing as a
log with smooth bark, or a banana tree whose leaves fall when they are
just coming out, or a spring with spouting waters.
All the listeners laughed as loud and long as the Rabbit and the King
of the Monkeys. Then they began to argue the question who was really
the king of all the animals, and from that they discussed who would be
the headman of the caravan when it should start out. The Alo Man got up
and shook the rattles on his drum.
“They will meet some one at the end of the first day’s journey who will
make them all run,--headman and porter, sick and well alike,” he said.
There were various guesses, but nobody guessed right.
“The Hill-that-goes-down-quick,” said the Alo Man, holding his hand at
a slope of about half a right angle, and there was a general shout, for
everybody remembered the steep hill just beyond the bridge. Truly, as
the Alo Man said, that would make any man run.
In the middle of the night, when everybody was asleep, Mpoko awoke
suddenly and sat straight up. At first he thought he must be dreaming
of the Elephant and the other animals, for he could hear chewing and
trampling and thrashing about in the edge of the forest. Peering out
in the moonlight, he could see big shadowy backs moving about near the
granary, and it did not take him a second to run out, shouting “Njoku!
Njoku!”
The Alo Man heard him and was out in a minute. His father heard him and
snatched up his spear and ran out, knocking up the other men. Almost
before the dogs could begin to bark, the little village was as lively
as an ant-hill.
[Illustration]
Now the elephant, for all his size, is not a ferocious animal, and
these elephants had come across that village only by accident. The
three or four that were browsing about in the hope of finding something
good were more surprised by the people than the people had been by
them. In no very great time they went off, splashing and trampling and
trumpeting through the forest. They left the maize field, however, in
bad shape, and some of the huts were in worse shape still, for the
elephants had gone right through them. When the timbers and thatch
pricked the big creatures, they were more than ever willing to go away
from that place at once.
The hunters of the village had no mind to lose this chance. Waiting
only to provide themselves with food, they set off on the trail, and
managed during the next day to head the elephants round toward a pit
they knew of which made a most effective elephant trap. Here they
caught two large elephants with splendid tusks, and they came home
in triumph with news of meat enough to provide a feast for the whole
village, and a store of ivory for the king which was worth many brass
rods.