DIFFICULTY OF MAKING OUR WAY—FALLEN TREES AND DENSE THICKETS—OUR MEAT
GIVES OUT—LOOKING FOR KOOLA TREES—A MEAL OF THEIR NUTRITIOUS
NUTS—THEIR IMPORTANCE TO THE TRAVELLER IN THE FOREST.
Next morning we determined to leave Crocodile Lake and go at once to the
elephant country.
We breakfasted on crocodile, to save our provisions. We hauled up our
canoes and hid them in the forest. Then we started. Once more we were in
the great forest; the foliage was so thick that no one could see the sun
or the sky.
We could not walk fast enough to please me, for I wished to reach the
elephant hunting-ground. The path was difficult to follow, for it was so
little used. Our advance was impeded by fallen trees blocking the path.
The big ones had brought down with them many others. So we had sometimes
to go through acres of broken branches, losing the path. In many places
we had to creep under low branches with our bodies bent, looking more
like apes than human beings. We had to climb or go under fallen trees,
or jump from one root to another, these often being over a foot above
the ground,—or else we walked for hours in the bed of a stream.
Fortunately I was in my teens, and weighed only a little over one
hundred pounds. I was then only five feet two inches tall. Had I been a
tall and heavy fellow I should have had an awfully hard time to creep
through the jungle. To-day I am but five feet four inches and a half in
height.
We travelled the whole day in a northern direction towards a prairie
country. A little before sunset we built our camp. The fires were kept
blazing all night, for in the region were many leopards, besides snakes
crawling at night. We built fifteen fires in a circle, and slept in the
centre, the smoke driving the mosquitoes away.
During the night the men on the watch were startled by a rustling in the
jungle. They awoke me at once—the noise was close to our camp. The men
thought some one was trying to approach our place and to surprise us. We
could not see far away, for the bright fires blinded us. An unseen enemy
in the dark could see us, while we could not discover him. The men went,
with their fingers on the triggers of their guns, to the place whence
they thought the noise proceeded. There was no one there.
Another time our suspicions were aroused by a rustling of branches; this
one was far more pronounced than the first. We looked at each other, and
pointed our guns in the direction of the noise. Then the men gave a
terrific war-cry—and fired towards the suspected spot, and with a rush
made for it. There was no trace whatever of men having been there.
“This noise must have been made by some huge snake,” said Ogoola.
“Yes,” replied Quabi, “it must have been a huge python, or perhaps some
night animals.”
We put more wood on the fires, then Oshoria and Ogoola relieved the
watch, and the rest of us went to sleep again. I had not been long
asleep when I suddenly jumped up—I thought I had heard a noise—but the
forest was still. I had been dreaming, I suppose. Oshoria and Ogoola
looked at me in astonishment and said: “Only a big leaf fell on the
ground, Oguizi.”
The least noise awakened me in the forest. My sleep was as light as a
watch-dog’s.
At dawn of day, after a breakfast of crocodile meat, we were again on
the march. Towards noon we rested a while to eat, after which we
continued our march, and looked for elephants; but no traces of them
could be seen. The day was sultry, and I became very thirsty, which was
seldom the case, for I had trained myself not to drink between meals. By
and by we came upon a little stream the water of which was as clear as
crystal. I plucked a big leaf, which I rolled up into a cornucopia,
filled with the cool water, and took a big drink. Rising, I saw what I
had not noticed before—a number of human footprints. My men were behind
and I waited for them. When they came in sight I bade them come towards
me. The fellows’ feet seemed to glide over the ground—I could not hear
their footsteps. I pointed out the footprints to them. Their looks
betrayed their feelings. They thought evidently that there were people
in the neighborhood. Oshoria said: “It is strange that we should see the
footprints of men here.”
We continued our march until it was near sunset. Then Oshoria stopped
and said: “Let us stop here for the night, for the light in the forest
is getting less bright, and warns us that it will be dark soon.”
The crocodile meat was getting somewhat tainted. We had got to the last
piece. Henceforth we should have to rely upon berries, nuts, and fruits.
After our meal the men filled their pipes and seated themselves by the
fire. “To-morrow,” said Oshoria, “we must be most careful. Our eyes must
look everywhere, and our ears must be listening. Sometimes men lie in
wait in the trees along the path, and you are only aware of their
presence when they throw a spear or a poisoned arrow, fire a gun at you,
or capture you; then it is too late to look out.”
[Illustration: “_I pointed out the footprints to them_”]
In the morning we started without breakfast. “Further on,” said Oshoria,
“we shall come to the koola trees. This is the time of the year when
they bear nuts. These are the best nuts found in the forest and we shall
have plenty of food. The koola nut satisfies a man’s hunger better than
any other berries or nuts. They taste so good. A man gets so much
strength after he has eaten them.”
We were getting more and more hungry as the hours passed away, and had
to drink water to keep up our strength. At last Ogoola said: “We are
near the koola trees.” He was right. A little further on he pointed out
to me a grove of four magnificent koola trees. They towered above the
other trees round them, and as I was looking at them nut after nut fell.
These nuts were dark, quite round, and of the size of a walnut.
The men immediately began to break them with stones. The shell is very
hard and thick. The kernel is as large as that of a cherry. My dear
hunters, even before they ate a single one, poured them upon my lap, and
said:
“Oguizi, eat, eat; you are hungry.”
“No,” said I, “we will eat together.” They broke the shells of a lot of
the nuts and afterwards we began to eat them. The kernel was whitish and
as condensed in substance as the almond. After I had eaten some thirty
of them I could not eat one more. We all laid ourselves flat on the
ground and took a nap, for we were exhausted from hunger. When we awoke
we could hear the nuts falling on the ground—sometimes one by one,
sometimes a lot together. This delighted our hearts, for no man could go
up the trees, they were so tall and their trunks were so big.
That day we collected all the nuts that fell on the ground and made our
supper of them. After our meal we seated ourselves in the centre of our
fires; then the men filled their pipes. Ogoola, who had been the first
to see the koola trees, said: “Oguizi, if it were not for the koola
trees we hunters would often die of hunger in the forest. Aniembié [the
good spirit] made them grow for us. Men cannot subsist on berries and
fruits; not only are they not strengthening—though they prevent a man
from starving—but if you eat too much of them you are sure to be ill
with dysentery. We are never ill from eating koola nuts.”
I found afterwards that thirty nuts were enough for one meal and would
keep a man vigorous from morning until evening.
“The koola trees,” continued Ogoola, “are sometimes found like those in
this place, three or four together, but oftener they are single. They
are easily recognized, for they are among the big trees of the forest.
We generally make our paths pass by where they are, for it is hard to
carry food enough for a long journey,—the plantain gets ripe so soon and
the bunches are so heavy, and the igouma is also very heavy. During the
season of the koola nuts, we carry very little food with us. Our
greatest enemies at that time are the boars, for they like the nuts as
well as we do, and feed much upon them. Then they become very fat
however, and are delicious to eat. The gorillas and other ‘men of the
woods’ are also very fond of koola nuts.”
Then the men added a lot of wood to the fires and we went to sleep.
Nothing happened during the night to disturb us, and the next morning we
collected the nuts that had fallen during the night, cracked them, and
started again for the elephant hunting-ground.