Rotembo looked at me with great astonishment, for he wondered why I wished to go and live in the forest by myself with only one man.
He remained silent for a minute or two, thinking deeply; then he said: "Oguizi, I will give you three gifts to go with you in the forest."
"What are they?" I asked.
"I will not tell you now," he replied, "but you will know when they are before you."
Then we separated, I wondering what were to be the three gifts Rotembo was to give me.
Four days passed by, and on the fifth, while I was seated by the side of Rotembo, a strange-looking man came before him, and bending very low took hold of his foot and said: "To do your bidding your faithful slave has come."
I looked at the man with great curiosity, and learned that his name was Rogala and that he was one of the most famous hunters in the country.
Rogala was of medium height and exceedingly well proportioned. His legs and arms were very muscular and as hard as wood. His chest was broad, and his hands and feet were small, – a very common occurrence among the people of the forest. His eyes were full of fire and daring. He had a fighting chin, and he appeared to be about forty years old. Scars upon one of his legs told where a leopard had once wounded him. He wore a huge head-dress of eagle's feathers. His eyelids were painted red, and a red stripe from the nose upward divided his forehead in two parts. The face was painted white, and on each side of the mouth were two round red spots. He was covered with mondahs, or charms. One of these protected him against witchcraft; another made him invulnerable against bullets, spears, or poisoned arrows – in a word, every one of them protected him against some evil or other.
Rotembo said to me: "I can trust Rogala more than any other man in the country. I bought him when he was quite young, and he has forgotten the language of his tribe. He faces without fear the ngina (gorilla), the elephant, the leopard, and the fiercest bear of the country. He has killed during his life more than one hundred elephants and he has kept all their tails as proofs. The number of hippopotami that have fallen under his gun is very great; the necklace I wear round my neck is made of the canines of some of the leopards he has killed."
I counted forty-eight of them; so Rogala had killed twelve leopards for the chief's necklace. He himself wore one with twenty-four canines; so before me were the witnesses of eighteen leopards that he had killed.
As I looked at Rogala, I said to myself: "He is just the kind of man I should like to take into the forest with me."
"Rogala is one of the three gifts I have promised you," said Rotembo.
I thanked the chief for the gift of Rogala, whereupon he said to him: "You know that I have always treated you well. Several times when I wanted to marry the daughters of chiefs they said, 'Only upon one condition can you marry my daughter, and that is, that you give me Rogala.' I always refused them, for I would not part with you."
I did not wonder at it, for if Rogala had killed over one hundred elephants, the barter of their tusks had brought wealth to Rotembo.
"I have given you to the Oguizi while he is in my country," continued the chief. "You must take care of him as you do of me. You must follow him in the forest. You must sleep by his side. You must face the wild beasts with him, and show him that Rogala's heart knows no fear. Put no shame on me by running away before danger; if you do you might just as well die in the jaws of a wild beast, for I myself will kill you. He is my Oguizi, and I love him. See that he is never hungry or thirsty."
While the chief was talking, Rogala listened reverently. When Rotembo had done speaking, Rogala said: "Chief, the best of masters, Rogala always does what you order him to do. I will do all you say, and follow the Oguizi wherever he goes, and live with him in the great forest and hunt with him. I will take care of him just as if he were my sweetheart."
"Rogala," said I, "I will be your friend. When we get into the forest, we will be like two men who are born the same day." Among the Africans of the great forest, when two men are born the same day, they are foster brothers.
"Good indeed you are, Oguizi," replied Rogala. "I will obey you in everything."
Then I presented him with a big hunting-knife, which pleased him greatly.
The following day, while I was seated by Rotembo under the veranda of his house, I saw Rogala coming towards us. He had with him a very strange-looking dog.
Rotembo said to me: "Look at this dog. His name is Andekko. He is fearless and always in the thick of the fight. He is not afraid of any wild beast. In war he always warns us of an enemy hiding in the jungle. He is the best of hunting dogs. He goes into the forest all alone in search of game, and will drive the antelope or gazelle up to Rogala or the hunter he knows, even if it takes him the whole day to do so. He has captured several young nginas and nshiegos after their mothers were killed, and gone into the lair of leopards and killed their young. The wonder is that he has not been killed by a gorilla or leopard long before now or been gashed in two by a boar or disabled by monkeys. Many times he will prevent you from being hungry while you are in the forest."
I gazed at Andekko with wonder, he looked so very ugly. He was covered with scars, marks of the wounds he had received in his conflicts with wild animals. One of his ears was split in two. His upper and lower lips were also cut on the left side. These two wounds had been made by a large monkey, called a mandril, which often walks on the ground and had been surprised there by Andekko.
Rotembo, seeing that I was looking at the scars of Andekko, said: "Oguizi, when wounded, this dog becomes even fiercer and more courageous than before. He is famous for his courage."
Andekko belonged to the same family of dogs as those that had gone gorilla-hunting with me at King Mombo's plantation. His hair was of yellowish color, and he had a white spot on his throat. His tail could not have been more curly, and he was quite lean; his legs were somewhat long.
Then Rotembo said: "Oguizi, Andekko is the second gift I promised you."
The next day Rogala came again, but this time with a monkey called Ndova. He was a fine creature, with a nice coat of hair and a white nose. The chief, pointing to the monkey, said: "His name is Ndova, and he has the intelligence of a man. He goes with Rogala into the forest. We have given him the name of Ndova because the species of monkeys to which he belongs is so called. You will not often be hungry in the forest when Ndova is with you, for he will call upon other ndovas to come to him while he stands close to you and Rogala, and when these come you will shoot them. You will have plenty of monkey meat to eat. When monkeys are fat," he added, "they taste fine, especially if they are broiled on a bright charcoal fire. While living on my plantations, I often take Ndova with me. He can only call on his fellow ndovas, for the other species do not understand his talk.
"There will be days," added Rotembo, "when you will find no monkeys or other game and hunger will come upon you. Then Ndova must follow you. There are many kinds of fruits, berries, and nuts in the forest; these look very tempting, but several of them are very poisonous, and people die if they eat them. So when you see any fruit, berries, or nuts you do not know, do not eat them until you give them to Ndova first. If he eats them, these are also good for you."
"Monkeys never make a mistake; they have a gift which no man possesses. By the sense of smell they can tell if a berry, nut, or fruit is poisonous. They always smell a thing they do not know before eating it, and when it is poisonous they throw it away. If it is not poisonous, they give it a bite. In that case what is good for the monkey is good for the man. But I must tell you that often the nuts, berries, or fruits a monkey likes men do not like, for monkeys and men have not always the same taste."
After hearing the words of Rotembo I looked with renewed curiosity at Ndova. He was almost as large as Andekko. His nose was white, which contrasted strongly with the color of his dark hair tipped with whitish gray. He had long canine teeth. I was glad to hear he was gentle, for I should not have liked to be bitten by him.
"Oguizi, I give you Ndova," Rotembo said. "He is the third