EVIL DAYS FOR THE NJOKOOS
Evil days were now coming for the njokoos. During all the years they had
been in the forest they had escaped many dangers, but henceforth they
were to encounter great peril and disaster. In their wanderings they
came at last to a part of the immense forest where there were villages
inhabited by wild, fierce human beings.
These human beings were very cunning. They spent a great part of their
lives sleeping in the forest, hunting njokoos for the sake of their
ivory tusks, which they could barter; besides, they liked njokoo meat
very much. They had all kinds of contrivances to trap njokoos. They dug
many pits for them to fall into and made many _hanous_, or huge beams
armed with big iron spikes, suspended among the trees, with lianas as
ropes attached to them and coming to the ground, so that when the
njokoos touched these, the heavy hanous, with their iron spikes, fell
upon their backs.
[Illustration: [Elephant]]
One day as the njokoos were rambling, suddenly two hanous fell upon the
backs of two of their number, broke their spines and killed them. The
crash the hanous made in falling frightened all the other njokoos, for
they did not know what it was, and they fled with the utmost speed. The
noise they made in their flight was fearful, as they crashed through the
jungle. After a long run they stopped, and looking at their number saw
that two were missing, for they knew each other well. There was great
sorrow among them. They said, “Let us go back where we heard the crash.
Perhaps our missing companions are there.” For when they had heard the
hanou fall, they were so frightened that they had no time to look and
see what had happened. So they went back; and when they arrived at the
place where the crash had occurred, they saw their two old companions
lying on the ground dead. They uttered trumpetings of sorrow at the
sight. They came round the poor bodies, and grasped their legs with
their trunks to pull them up, but the legs fell back. They seized their
trunks, but these also fell back on the ground. They trumpeted to them,
but they did not answer. When they had made sure that they were dead,
they left the place, but not before they had taken a careful look at the
hanous.
They had not gone a long way before another hanou fell upon one of them.
The rest fled in great dismay. As they were running, they saw another
njokoo suddenly disappear under the ground. He had fallen into a pit dug
by human beings to catch njokoos. It had been made with a great deal of
cunning. Small sticks were placed close together over the pit, and
covered with earth and dead leaves, so that the spot looked exactly like
the ground. The elephants ran faster than they had ever done in their
lives before.
The next day the njokoos returned to the place where their companion had
suddenly disappeared. When they approached, they heard his dying moans.
They called to him, “Come to us; come to us: we have come to help you
out;” but no answer came back to them, only the same moans. Some went to
the border of the pit and saw that it was very deep, and at the bottom
was their poor friend at death’s door. They knew the poor wounded njokoo
was dying, for his legs were all broken from his own heavy weight when
he fell. The walls of the pit were perpendicular so they could not reach
him. Then they left, saying, “Let us flee from this country; it is the
worst we have ever seen.”
In their eagerness to flee after the misfortunes that had happened to
them, the njokoos crossed high and steep mountains all covered with
dense forest and at last thought themselves safe. But one morning they
heard a great noise behind them. This noise was made by human voices.
“Let us flee,” cried the njokoos again, and they broke into a run, when
suddenly they came upon a network of lianas twisted together, forming a
kind of stockade, which had been made by human beings. As the unhappy
njokoos tried to break through, human beings who had stationed
themselves in the trees threw spears at them, and many were killed, only
a few escaping with their lives. Among those who fell were some of the
wisest of the herd. From that time on, the njokoos never long enjoyed
peace.
After many years of wanderings, only two remained of that big and
splendid herd,—an old njokoo and his mate. The old one said sorrowfully:
“Dear, we have been companions for many rainy and dry seasons. We
started in life together when we were young, and now we are old; all our
folks have been killed, and we are left alone. Our life has been a hard
one indeed; we have had hardly any peace; our time has been spent in
trying to escape from our enemies, the wicked human beings. Many times,
to avoid them, we have taken refuge in the highest mountains, in the
thickest part of the forest and jungle, in impenetrable swamps, in most
inaccessible places; but they have always managed to find us. Though we
are the strongest and biggest creatures of this forest, we have had to
flee before them.”
Then he rubbed his body against hers and trumpeted his affection, which
she returned also, for they loved each other very much, and were
especially drawn together by the misfortunes they had suffered in
common. They did not know where to go. They were in sore distress. They
had escaped from the land of hanous, of pits and spears, and now after a
long journey in which they had crossed many steep mountains and swum
across many rivers, they had come to the land of guns. They regretted
deeply the loss of their old leader, for they remembered his great skill
and how he avoided many dangers. “One of the great misfortunes of us
njokoos,” they said, “is that our tracks are very conspicuous, for we
are so big and heavy.”
After more wanderings, they came to a country where the forest was full
of deep narrow rivers and swamps. They entered it and remained on the
dry land between the swamps, and there the two lived to a very great old
age.