WE START AFTER THE GORILLAS—CAUTIOUS WALKING THROUGH THE FOREST—THE
DOGS FIND THE NGINA—YELLS OF THE MONSTER BROUGHT TO BAY—HE
SLAUGHTERS TWO OF THE DOGS—TAUNTS OF THE HUNTERS—SHOT THROUGH THE
HEART AT LAST.
Early in the morning, just at dawn of day, I was ready for the start.
Soon Oshoria, Ogoola, Ngola, and Quabi made their appearance. What a
sight they were! Their bodies were daubed all over with ochre of
different colors, a sign that they were on the war-path. Each wore a
broad belt of charmed leopard skin over which incantations from the
medicine doctor had been made the day before, and which were thereupon
pronounced by him invulnerable against spears, arrows, and bullets. They
were all covered with “mondahs,” which also had been made powerful by
incantations and were to protect their lives. They would never have
started for the hunt without these.
These charms were made of skins of rare animals which enclosed the dried
flesh and brains of rare monkeys and birds, teeth of crocodiles and
leopards, feathers of birds, fangs and brains of snakes, ashes of
animals’ intestines that had been burned by the medicine doctor, and
rare and precious land shells, filled with charmed ingredients.
Oshoria wore a charmed iron chain which had been forged in a far
country. This chain was looked upon by all the slaves as the most
invincible of all charms, for Oshoria had met many dangerous and
ferocious beasts, he had killed several nginas, and had never been
wounded. This chain ran from his left shoulder to his right side.
The men had left that morning in the forest an offering of a leg of an
antelope to the spirits Olombo and Mombo to propitiate their good will,
so that they should give them good luck.
Before starting, my hunters cut the backs of their hands in several
places before one of the idols, and mixed their blood with earth and
some kind of dust and clay, with which each filled a land shell, carried
by every man in a bag, that also contained a special little idol, to
guard and protect them from harm.
They neglected nothing to insure their lives. Regundo invoked the
spirits of his ancestors in a loud voice and called upon them to follow
us and protect us.
When everything was ready we went to the canoes that were waiting for
us. Into one we put the dogs, Ogoola and Ngola going with them; Oshoria
and Quabi, and the two men who had brought us news of the presence of
the nginas and were to act as our guides were in my canoe. Regundo
followed us to the river and, taking my hands, blew on them and wished
me success.
We paddled along until we came to a tree under which the spirit called
Mbuiri was supposed to rest sometimes and look at the river. The men
danced and sang under it.
Then we continued our way upon the silent river—lined all along with the
dense forest. We saw two huge black and yellow snakes in the water.
Afterwards we met a troop of monkeys which from a tree were looking
towards the other side of the river. They were chattering among
themselves in great earnest. They wanted, I thought, to cross to the
other side—but the river was too wide. When we came near them they
stopped chattering, and looked down upon us as we passed. When far
enough away we heard them chattering again.
Further up we landed near a large tree, where I saw a path. We partook
of a light meal, and then, making our canoes secure among the reeds that
hid them from sight, we started. This path led to the plantation of the
two men who had brought the news of the nginas. The dogs were led by
leashes, for we did not want them to run in the forest.
As we marched in single file, not one of us spoke a word. Two or three
times we heard troops of monkeys travelling in the forest. Once we heard
the shrill cries of a flock of parrots. Suddenly we came upon a great
number of pineapple plants; many of the pine-apples had been eaten up.
Oshoria looked at me and said: “Nginas have been here,—not to-day, but
two or three days ago.”
We continued our way and discovered in a muddy part of the path four
footprints of nginas. Their heel-prints were deep in the mud—but the
toe-prints were hardly visible. Two of the heels were much larger than
the other two. “The big footprints are those of a man ngina,” said
Oshoria; “the smaller ones are those of his wife.” When looking round I
saw two tiny footprints and pointed them out to Oshoria who said: “Those
are the footprints of the baby ngina.”
Further on we saw along the path a place where the nginas had tarried,
for the jungle was much broken, and some of the saplings had been broken
and partly chewed or eaten up. This looked as if it had been done the
day before. We all agreed that the nginas were in the neighborhood.
We slept in the forest that night. Before daylight we were up. I painted
my face and hands black with powdered charcoal mixed with oil so that I
might not be easily seen. Men from the plantation, who had come to meet
us, took charge of the dogs.
After two hours’ walk we stopped, and one of the guides said something
to Oshoria in a very low voice which I could not hear. Then Oshoria
said: “We had better loose the dogs and let them go.” In the twinkling
of an eye they were in the forest and out of sight.
We entered a large field of plantain trees. Oshoria led, I followed,
then came Ngola, Ogoola, and then Quabi. We walked very silently, and
our excitement was so great that we could hear each other pant. After a
while Oshoria was quite a distance ahead of all of us. He was the scout,
and we had lost sight of him through the crookedness of the path. I
stopped to see if we were all at hand and then we continued our way,
when, after passing a bend in the path, I saw Oshoria standing still
waiting for us. As soon as he saw us he gave the cluck of danger, “Kluk,
kluk,” put his hand on his mouth as a sign not to speak, then his hand
towards his ear as a sign for us to listen. We walked towards him
without uttering a word, but looked towards each other. Then Oshoria
pointed with his finger in a certain direction. He had evidently heard
something that had attracted his attention there.
Soon we heard the peculiar shrill piercing cry of fear of a ngina.
Oshoria whispered to me: “That is the cry of a female gorilla who is
afraid and has fled. Probably she has scented the dogs and given the cry
of distrust and fear to her mate.”
Immediately after we heard the barking of our dogs, followed by the
tremendous yells of defiance and fight of a huge male gorilla “Whoah,
whoah;” then roars that filled the forest with their din, and seemed to
be like the sound of thunder along the sky. These roars almost entirely
drowned the fierce barking of the fourteen dogs. “It is a man ngina,”
whispered Oshoria. “His mate has fled. Let us prepare ourselves for a
fight.” Instinctively we came still nearer together and looked at our
guns; my hunters’ guns were loaded with plugs of iron, plugs which they
use to kill elephants. I looked at “Bulldog” and said: “Thou faithful
rifle, which hast never failed me before in time of danger, be true to
me to-day, be true to me!”
“Let us go and fight this man ngina,” shouted my men with eagerness in
their eyes and a sort of ferocious joy. This time they were not afraid
of being heard, for they knew that the huge beast was brought to bay and
would not run away, but attack. We advanced through the plantain trees,
many of which had been pulled down by the two nginas. Every step forward
increased the terrific din made by the fierce barking of the dogs and
the angry roars of the ngina. We came nearer and nearer the border of
the forest, and soon caught sight of the dogs. Looking in the direction
where the most forward and daring of them were barking, we saw a huge
male gorilla with his back against a tree and following with his eyes
the dogs that surrounded him. Evidently the huge fiendish creature had
never been attacked by dogs before. He was bewildered by their number
and did not know what to do except to yell and roar at them. He was
seated, ready to use his powerful long arms or his feet, catching the
dogs with his terrible manlike hands if they came near him. The dogs
knew this and were cautious in their attack; they advanced and
retreated, led by “Bloodthirsty” and “Pouncer,” closely followed by the
others.
Suddenly the gorilla’s yells and roars stopped. He had seen us, and he
did not know what to make of these new enemies. His eyes glanced from
the dogs to us—he seemed to know that if he went after one of the dogs
the others would fall on him from everywhere.
What a sight! The huge creature seemed the incarnation of ugliness. “No
other creature in the world can look so ugly,” I said to myself. His
legs were short and bent, he had such a broad chest and such a
protruding abdomen, that it appeared to contain at least a barrel of the
food he had devoured. He had big, powerful, muscular long arms, and huge
paws, of which the fingers were short and thick. His huge foot had four
toes and one thumb. His body was thinly covered with hair, his face was
intensely black—blue-black—his eyes were deeply sunken in his head, and
he looked straight at us, as if he were a human being. Tigers, lions,
dogs, and other animals never can look in that way. The sockets of his
eyes were evidently like those of man, allowing him to look in the same
manner. His hair stood erect all over his body owing to his rage—and
that on his head moved up and down, and he beat his breast. But in spite
of all that he had an anxious expression in his eyes, which were looking
all round, for he had never been surrounded by so many enemies before,
dogs and men, and this was the reason he had put himself against a
tree—so that no dog could attack him from behind—and thus placed he
could see all his foes.
Our guns were pointed at him in the direction of his heart, and at the
least advance he made towards us we would have fired. The only thing I
feared was that instead of advancing erect to attack us, he would drop
on all fours, being surrounded by so many enemies, and would run towards
us in that posture; then it would have been far more difficult to shoot
at and wound him mortally. I noticed blood on one of his hands and then
I saw at about five or six feet from him the prostrate form of one of
the dogs. It was “Fierce.” My men saw the dog at the same time—“Fierce”
was one of the most intrepid of their dogs. They shouted to the ngina:
“You have killed fierce ‘Fierce.’ We will kill you also.” The gorilla
became so hard pressed by the dogs that he had no time to yell, for he
was too busy looking round for them; he only uttered now and then, when
one came too near, a “Whoah wah.” The dogs were ready to spring on him
as soon as they had an opportunity. They watched their time, but the
huge ngina was watching them also; he knew what they were about, and as
soon as they came within his reach he would, by a sudden motion of his
long arm shoot it forward and try to catch the most daring one that came
near him, sometimes using his legs and feet instead. My hunters were
cool—but they were on the war-path and had met their enemy. Oshoria,
Ngola, Ogoola, Quabi, shouted words of defiance to the gorilla such
as—“We are men. Yes, we are men. Come towards us, if you dare. We are
[Illustration: "_The big monster ... seized 'Bloodthirsty' and threw him
dead on the ground_"]
ok at us straight in the face. We laugh at you. How do you dare to yell
at the Oguizi. Soon you will hear ‘Bulldog’ talk to you. Our guns will
talk to you also. Ngina, you are a coward—come towards us if you are not
afraid. You have only a short time to live; soon you will lie dead at
the feet of the Oguizi.”
Then they gave a terrific war-cry, the one used before attacking their
enemy, and the gorilla uttered a terrific yell of defiance in response.
The dogs had become bolder and bolder, and more and more angry. Suddenly
“Bloodthirsty” came too near the ngina, and before he had time to
retreat, and quicker than the eye could follow, the big monster had sent
his powerful arm forward and with his huge hand seized “Bloodthirsty”
and threw him dead on the ground. At this the other dogs, enraged by the
loss of their two companions, lost control of themselves—forgot all
prudence—and as they were on the point of jumping on the huge beast,
which now was uttering terrific yells, I, not wishing the men to lose
more dogs, said “Fire!” and we all shot at the same time. The huge
monster fell forward on his face, shot through the heart. In the
twinkling of an eye the dogs jumped on him and he was torn to pieces.
Poor “Fierce” and “Bloodthirsty,” were dead. Regundo was right when he
said that if we met with nginas all the dogs would not return.
Then my hunters went round the ngina, and, looking at him, shouted: “We
were not afraid of you. When the Oguizi looked at you, it was just the
same as if you were dead, for he had made up his mind to kill you as
soon as he saw you.”
Then I cut off his head, as a trophy, and, carrying it with us, we went
back to the plantation and saw our three guides, who had left us as soon
as they thought the nginas were near. We laughed at them.
The following day we were on our way back to my hunters’ home. When we
reached the plantation, Oshoria carried the head of the gorilla on a
pole, Regundo and the other people welcoming us back with great
expressions of joy. In the meantime, my clock had stopped, and was
silent under the veranda, and Regundo and the other people thought that
the spirits that were in it had followed me. Their belief in this
increased when they saw that after my return the tick of the clock began
again.