HUNTING ELEPHANTS AND BUFFALOES.—A VENOMOUS SERPENT.—A SNAKE CHARMER.—HE
IS BITTEN.—HE COMMITS SUICIDE.
It was midnight; the moon had risen, and I could look at the expanse of
the prairies situated near Point Obenda, on the Gaboon estuary. The moon
threw just light enough to show me the great solitude, in the midst of
which there was not a living soul with me. As my eyes gazed upon the
broad expanse, I tried to see if I could perceive any wild beast. At
last I spied far off what I thought to be a huge elephant; it stood
still: the great beast neither walked nor fed.
I immediately put my old Panama hat flat on my head and walked in a
stooping posture toward the huge monster, who was far off. I approached
nearer and nearer, when lo! the big beast began to move toward me. A
feeling of awe crept over me; there was not a hill near to hide myself;
there was not a tree for me to climb upon; I thought how small I looked
by the side of this, the largest of the animals of the forest!
Did the elephant see me?
Did he come to meet me and attack me?
[Illustration: LYING LOW FOR ELEPHANTS.]
[Sidenote: _AN UGLY VISITOR._]
Such were the questions that came at once to my mind. My courage began
to quail. I was, as I said, quite alone; I had left all my men in the
camp: these men were the slaves of some of my Mpongwes’ friends, and
they were, I knew, fast asleep; in case of accident I had no one to come
to the rescue. At that time I was a young lad, and had no confidence in
myself, and to fight an elephant which looked so big, seemed to me
perfectly impossible. But very soon I got accustomed to face danger, and
loved to hunt elephants. I was no more afraid of them. Well, the
elephant kept still coming toward me as I lay flat on the ground. At
last he stopped, and then I saw him raise his trunk; my heart began to
beat terribly, for I thought he was coming down to charge upon me. Then
he sniffed two or three times and suddenly ran away. I had shouldered my
gun, resolved at any rate to try to kill him instead of being trampled
down by his huge feet.
The sound of every one of his steps could be heard distinctly, as he ran
away from me, and he was soon out of sight. He had gone into the forest,
and nature fell back into its accustomed stillness. Now and then the
voice of a frog resounded strangely from the prairie.
Suddenly a cloud came over the moon, and it grew almost dark; the wind
blew strongly, for it was in the dry season and was quite chilly. After
wandering a while I came at last to a large ant-hill and sheltered
myself there, thinking at the same time that it would be a splendid
place to hide and look for game.
How strange my shadow appeared by the side of that ant-hill, when the
moon shone again!
I did not wait long for game. I had not lain long by the ant-hill before
I saw coming out of the forest not far off a herd of _Bos brachicheros_,
the wild bull of this part of Africa. How fantastic their bodies
appeared, as one by one they came out of the forest: they were coming
toward where I stood, and the wind blew toward me. I counted, I think,
twenty of these wild buffaloes. They stopped for a while as if to
determine what direction to take, and perhaps also to see if they might
discover or smell the leopard, which is their most dangerous enemy, and
then continued their march toward the ant-hill where I was. I became
very excited, cocked my gun, and aimed at the bull which was heading the
herd, then pulled the trigger; bang! and down he came. A general
stampede followed, but just in the direction of the ant-hill. What did
these fellows mean? Did they all want to charge me? No, they passed to
the right and left of the ant-hill. After they had passed I turned round
and fired another shot into the midst of them, but this time with less
effect, for none fell, and this second shot made them run away with
greater speed than before. At any rate I was glad, for I had knocked
down the bull, the head of the herd.
I wished I had a horse and a lasso; how quickly I should have come to
them, and killed enough of them to give meat to all my men for several
days to come.
I went back and saw the bull lying on the ground, not dead, but moaning
terribly from pain. As I approached he tried to get up, but in vain; so
another bullet in the head finished him.
[Sidenote: _RETURN TO THE CAMP._]
My men, who had been awakened by the shot, looked round for me, and
finding that I had gone, made for the direction of the firing, and there
was great rejoicing as they approached and saw the huge bull lying on
the ground, for plenty was to enter the camp with his carcase.
The beast was at once cut to pieces; each man took a load, and we made
for the camp; for it was too cold to linger. Besides, I was getting
tired. We were afraid to leave the animal alone during the night for
fear of leopards.
It was four o’clock in the morning when I reached the camp.
Our camp was protected by the forest and was situated on the edge of it.
I immediately started a tremendous fire, and felt so tired that I fell
asleep directly on the bare ground, telling my men to keep watch. The
good fellows were in good spirits, and already began to roast pieces of
meat on the bright charcoal fire, and were eating in such big mouthfuls
that it would have made you laugh to see them.
As for me, as I said, I went to sleep, and my men the next morning said
that I made a terrible noise snoring. I denied it and said I never
snored, but they said I did. But after all, you know, I had no pillow,
and I should not wonder if I did snore a little.
Next morning the sun rose brightly, the air was somewhat chilly, the
breeze was fresh. I was happy, I remember. These were bright days for
me: I was without care, and for some time the fever had left me. I was
in good health and spirits.
After an early breakfast I started for the hunt. I had with me my best
gun; the slave that followed me had another gun; this one was loaded
with bullets; I had my dinner with me, and that dinner was a piece of
the bull I had killed the day before which had been roasted on charcoal.
I intended to dine on the banks of some little rivulet so that I might
have water to drink during my meal. I would have no plate except a leaf;
the trunk of a fallen tree was to be my seat, and my knees were to be my
table.
With a light step I left our camp. My spirits were buoyant; discoveries
of new animals, of new birds, of new countries loomed up in the
distance. How much I would have to tell my friends on my return from
that strange and wild land I had come to see, if God granted me life and
health!
[Sidenote: _A RUN FROM A DANGEROUS SNAKE._]
We went through prairies, swamps, and forest. At last we came to a spot
where once a plantation stood; it was intersected by several little
brooks of clear water. My man shouted, “_Omemba ompolo!_” (a large
snake), and I saw at the same moment an enormous black shining snake (a
species of naja), one of the most dangerous species. I knew he was
coming in our direction and belonged to that species that when bullied
raises itself erect and wants to fight. He was a terribly big fellow,
one of the largest I had ever seen; he looked loathsome and horrid; I
could see distinctly his triangular head. I fired in haste, hoping to
break his spine, but missed the reptile, and immediately he erected
himself to a few feet in height and whistled in the most horrid manner,
his tongue coming out sharp and pointed like an arrow. I fired again
right into his head, and I do not know why, but I missed him again. Then
the fellow gave a spring; I really do not know if he came toward me, for
I fled panic-stricken, and when at a safe distance reloaded my gun with
small shot, and returned to the spot where I had shot at him. I spied
something just getting out of a little rivulet. It was the very snake
itself which had crossed the water, and before he was entirely out I
fired and killed him, or rather I succeeded in breaking his spine and
making him helpless for attack or for running away. But he was not dead,
and when I approached him he again gave a sharp whistle. I cut a branch
of a tree for a stick to kill him with, and then examined his fangs:
they were of enormous size, and almost an inch in length.
This snake was about ten feet long. We left it on the spot, taking its
head and tail with us, which we carefully packed in leaves, for we
wanted to show to our fellows of the camp what a big snake we had
killed.
This species of naja is the only one I have ever seen which could erect
itself.
One day I witnessed a fearful scene. A man, a native of Goree, an island
on the coast of Senegambia, who had the reputation of being a snake
charmer and was then at the Gaboon, had succeeded in capturing one of
these large naja. He was a bold man, and prided himself on never being
afraid of any snake, however venomous the reptile might be; nay, not
only was he not afraid of any of them, but he would fight with any of
them and get hold of them.
I had often seen him with snakes in his hands. He was careful, of
course, to hold them just by the neck below the head, in such a manner
that the head could not turn on itself and bite him.
That day he brought into a large open place, perfectly bare of grass,
one of these wild naja that he had just captured, and was amusing
himself by teasing the horrid and loathsome creature when I arrived. It
was a huge one!
Most of the people of the village had fled, and those natives who like
myself were looking on, kept a long way off. Not a Mpongwe man, not a
single inhabitant of the whole region I have explored, would have ever
dared to do what the Goree man did.
Two or three times, as the snake crawled on the ground, we made off in
the opposite direction with the utmost speed, myself, I am afraid,
leading off in the general stampede; though I had provided myself with a
gun.
It was perfectly fearful, perfectly horrid and appalling to see that man
making a plaything of this monster; laughing, as we may say, at death,
for it could be nothing else, I thought.
[Sidenote: _CHARMING A NAJA._]
At first when I saw him he had the snake around his body, but he held it
firmly just below the neck, and I could see by the muscles of his arm
that he had to use great strength. As long as this part of the body is
held firmly the snake loses much of its great power of crushing one to
death as the boa-constrictor or python does with larger animals, and as
small snakes do with smaller game; but with this naja the danger would
have been the venomous bite.
[Illustration: THE SNAKE CHARMER.]
Then with his other hand he took the tail of the snake, and gave it a
swing and gradually unfolded the reptile from his black body, which was
warm and shining with excitement, but always holding the head. On a
sudden he threw the snake on the ground. Then the creature began to
crawl away, when suddenly the Goree man came in front of it with a light
stick and instantly the monster erected itself almost to half its full
length, gave a tremendous whistle, which we all heard, looked glaringly
and fiercely in the man’s face with its sharp, pointed tongue out, and
then stood still as if it could not move. The Goree man, with his little
stick in his left hand, touched it lightly as though to tease it. It was
a fearful sight—and if he had been near enough the snake would no doubt
have sprung upon its antagonist. The man, as he teased and infuriated
the snake with the rod he held in his left hand, drew the attention of
the reptile toward the stick; then suddenly and in the wink of an eye,
almost as quick as lightning, with his right hand he got hold of the
creature just under his head.
The same thing that I have just described again took place. The snake
folded itself round his body; then he unfolded the snake, which was once
more let loose, and now this horrid serpent got so infuriated that as
soon as he was thrown on the ground he erected himself, and the glare of
his eyes was something terrific. It was indeed an appalling scene; the
air around seemed to be filled with the whistling sound of the creature.
[Sidenote: _THE SNAKE CHARMER DIES._]
Alas! a more terrible scene soon took place! The man became bolder and
bolder, more and more careless, and the snake probably more and more
accustomed to the mode of warfare of his antagonist, and just as the
monster stood erect, the man attempted to seize its neck as he had done
many and many a time before, but grasped the body too low, and before he
had time to let it go the head turned on itself and the man was bitten!
I was perfectly speechless, the scene had frozen my blood, and the wild
shrieks of all those round rent the air. The serpent was loose and
crawling on the ground, but before it had time to go far a long pole
came down upon its back and broke its spine, and in less time than I
take to write it down the monster was killed.
To the French doctor who had charge of the little colony the man went
(happily he was just at hand); all the remedies were prompt and
powerful; the man suffered intensely, his body became swollen, his mind
wandered, and his life was despaired of; but at last he got better, and
though complaining of great pain near the heart, he was soon able to go
out again. A short time after this accident, having an axe in his hand,
going as he said to cut wood, he suddenly split his own head in two. He
had become insane!
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]