CHAPTER IV

THE NKEMAS, OR MONKEYS, TRAVEL TOWARD THE LAND OF PLENTY

While the guanioniens were hatching their eggs, the monkeys began to think that it was time to start on their journey to the Land of Plenty, a journey which they took every year. They remembered the great time they had in that land, and how loaded many of the trees were with berries, nuts, and fruits. What feasts they had, and how fat they had become while there, even before they had eaten up everything in sight!

From many distant parts of the great forest north and south, east and west, troops of monkeys accordingly were travelling to the Land of Plenty.

Among those were the white-mustached miengai, the red-headed nkago, the jet-black, long-haired mondi, the white-nosed ndova, the bluish black oganagana, the nchegai, and the mpondai.

Each troop was hurrying as fast as possible, so as to reach the Land of Plenty before all the other monkeys, and even before the ngozos. All the creatures of the forest do likewise; hence they all start at the dawn of the day.

Each species of monkey has a distinct language of its own, and so easily recognizable that the other creatures of the forest can tell which kind of monkey is talking. The various species do not mingle with one another. The number in each troop is from ten to twenty or thirty; sometimes, but rarely, even as many as fifty. Every troop has its leader, chosen for his cunning and knowledge of the places where food is to be found at different seasons, months, and sometimes even in different weeks in the forest.

The monkeys never eat any kind of new food without first smelling it to find out whether or no it is poisonous, for the forests abound in poisonous fruits, which are sometimes most tempting and deceiving in appearance, and, if bad, the monkeys throw them away at once.

They know all the trees, rocks, brooks, and other landmarks. They choose a track or path where they can find food on their way.

Among the monkeys who were thus travelling was a troop of white-nosed ndovas, numbering about twenty-five. Their leader was a very knowing old fellow, who had by his quick sight and acute hearing and cunning warned them many a time of danger, so that they could escape. All the troop believed in his wisdom and had great confidence in his judgment.

For nearly fifteen consecutive years the old ndova had made the trip to the Land of Plenty.

One evening before going to sleep, the chief said to his followers: “Strange is our life. The trees are our home; we never sleep twice on the same one; we have to travel all the year round in search of food, and sometimes food is so scarce that we have to go long distances and then get only a scant living. Indeed, at certain times of the year we have to work hard for our living. We have even to walk on the ground to pick up what we can get. When we are walking we are timid, for it is only when we are in the trees that we feel at home. Leaping from one tree to another, we can travel very fast.”

“That is so,” said all the ndovas, when they heard their leader speak these words of wisdom; “we are glad to have you for a chief.”

“Yes,” he replied, “but I am getting old, and soon the younger ndovas will drop me and choose another chief.”

“Not yet, not yet; not for a long time yet,” cried all the younger ndovas.

Soon deep silence reigned among them. They all had fallen asleep.

At daylight they got ready for their long journey. And their chief said to his followers, “We shall have to travel fast to-day, for food will be scarce on our way.”

Soon after the ndovas started on their journey, the old chief leading, while four or five of the strongest were almost abreast of him, the others following. They did not run or walk on the branches of trees, but travelled as they always do on such occasions when they make a long journey. They took flying leaps, falling on the end of the branches they reached, their weight bringing down with great force the limbs of the tree upon which they fell, ten or twelve feet and sometimes more, the limbs then rebounding with great force.

On the rebound with astonishing quickness and unerring eyes they sprang to the extremity of another branch.

[Illustration: [Monkeys]]

These leaps varied in length from ten to fifteen or twenty feet. Their feet and hands caught with great firmness and precision the flexible limb upon which they landed. Their eyes measured instantly the space to be leaped over and the branch to be reached. Their quick ways are one of the gifts given to many of the monkey tribe. On their journey the ndovas found themselves sometimes on trees higher than all the surrounding ones. Then they had to leap down some forty or fifty feet, and the limbs upon which they fell, bent with a great crash and rebounded with amazing force.

Thus they went on incessantly for several hours, all keeping silent, never uttering a cry, and at the rate of about fifteen miles an hour. The sound of the bending and rebounding of the branches of trees, the rustle of their leaves, was heard by many creatures of the forest, who said, “The monkeys are travelling.”

At last they came to several trees covered with nuts. There was great joy among all the ndovas at the sight. The leader had taken them to the right place. They might have passed the spot either on the right or on the left without knowing it, for the trees were so thick.

They were there before any other troop of monkeys or flock of parrots. So they had it all to themselves, and soon were cracking nuts and eating them as fast as they could.

After the ndovas had eaten until they could eat no more, they were somewhat lazy. They moved quietly, and leaped gently from one branch of a tree to another to amuse themselves. They played with and ran after one another.

Some of the old ones were by themselves. There was one hanging to a branch of a tree by one arm. Suddenly one of his companions, getting hold of his legs, hung by them, the branch bending heavily down with the combined weight of the two. “Let go! Get away!” shouted the upper one with all his lungs. “You are too heavy. I am going to drop. My hands cannot hold the branch much longer.” When the other heard this, he laughed at his friend and let go and dropped. Another one would raise himself with his arms, climb over his fellow, and then run off pursued by the angry ndova, who did not like to have such tricks played on him. Then both would stop, glare at each other, and peace was made.

Some of the ndovas were hanging downward, looking at their friends underneath, who were quiet and holding a conversation. Others were looking searchingly in the skin of a comrade who was lying on his back on a big limb of a tree and picking out any little thing they saw in his fur. They all seemed to enjoy this immensely, especially the one lying on his back. He had the best of it. He loved to be scratched.

A number were very lively, and were running after one another, to see which could run the fastest and escape. They shouted: “You cannot catch me. I dare you.” They would leap from one branch to another, then stop and grin at their companions who could not catch them. These were the young members of the troop. A good meal did not make them lazy.

Some ndovas made queer grimaces at each other. Others were quarrelling for one reason and another. They uttered sounds of defiance and were full of fight, daring and tantalizing one another, their angry eyes almost sticking out of their sockets.

One or two ndovas lay on their backs, quietly resting on a heavy limb of a tree, holding to a branch to steady themselves or so as not to tumble down. Suddenly they were seen by some other ndovas above, who came and disturbed them. Then came a short fight.

Their chief was quietly looking on at his followers. All at once he gave a cry of alarm well known among the ndovas, which meant, “Let us be off; there is danger.” There was a cry of fear from the other ndovas and a general stampede, all going to the left from the danger, for that peculiar cry of the chief meant they were to run from the right.

It was which among them could run the fastest. They leaped from tree to tree, from the extremity of one branch to the end of another branch, and so the whole troop went on. They were in full flight and going as fast as they could. It did not take them long to get out of the supposed danger and far from the place. When they thought they were safe, they slackened their speed.

Suddenly a peculiar sound or cry was uttered by their chief, which meant for them to stop. Then when they had come together he said to them, “We had a narrow escape. A huge tree omemba [serpent] was coming toward us.” They rested a little while and then continued their journey toward the Land of Plenty. They came to a cluster of trees loaded with nuts and all uttered cries of joy at the sight. Their chief had led them right; they were not to starve. They broke the shells and ate the kernels with great avidity. When their appetites were satisfied they filled the pouches inside of their cheeks until the skin of these was so distended that they could hold no more.

“If we do not find food,” said they, “we will eat the nuts that we have stored in our pouches. How nice it is for us to have such pouches, so that we can carry provisions with us and eat them on the way when hungry!”

Then they resumed their journey, for the Land of Plenty was still far away. “Let us hurry as fast as we can,” they said, “so as to be the first on the spot.”

But an hour or two afterward, they slackened their speed and stopped, walking leisurely on the branches of trees. They were hungry, and began to eat the food they had stored in their pouches. These were so full that they had to use their hands outside to press out the pieces of nuts.

After this they continued their journey, and when it was nearly sunset stopped, and prepared for their night’s rest. Some quarrelled for places. But soon all were seated comfortably on their haunches with their legs bent, their heads gradually fell on their breasts, and they were ere long fast asleep. They remained undisturbed the whole of the night.

Early the following day the ndovas were again on the march. During the day, while they were resting and chattering, the whistling of several arrows was heard among them, and two of their number were pierced and killed and fell to the ground with a great crash. All the ndovas, giving a cry of alarm, fled with the greatest speed. They knew that those arrows had been shot by human beings, for several of their number had been killed in that manner before. They were not afraid of the apes, or “men of the woods,” but they knew well what human beings were like, and every time they saw them they fled.

Having run a long way, they stopped. They were all sad and mourned greatly the death of their two companions. The chief said, “We never know where these human beings are lying in wait for us. They are so sly. They are under trees on which we feed before we know it, and often they take us unawares, though we watch and are on the lookout for them.”

After a pause another wise ndova said: “Next the human beings our greatest enemy is the guanionien. He swoops down upon us, seizes us in his powerful claws, carries us up in the air, and then alights upon a tree and devours us. How we dread him! He is worse than a human being. We have to be constantly on the lookout for him, for we can never scent him, and before we know it one of us is carried away. So we have to watch above our heads for the guanioniens, and under the trees for the human beings. Fortunately there are not very many of these horrid guanioniens.”

A third ndova, after listening to this, asked: “What about the big tree snakes? Has no one seen one of them after us on this journey?”

[Illustration: “_Here is a huge manga_”]

In the course of the day the ndovas came to a stream and followed its banks until it became narrow enough for them to leap to the other side.

They stopped to rest on a tree overlooking the river, when suddenly they spied a strange creature swimming along the banks. At first they could only see his head. “Here is a huge manga [manatee],” said the chief of the ndovas to his followers. “He is feeding on the leaves of the trees that hang with their branches touching the water. Look at him! how big he is! [the monster weighs sometimes fifteen hundred pounds]. What a clumsy animal! He is eating leaves, and yet he never gets out of the water, never lands on the shore. How small his eyes are!”

The manga is indeed wonderful! on his sides are fins, or hands without nails, which he uses as oars to swim with, and his tail is flat, and with the help of his paddles he can raise his body up vertically, and this enables him to feed on the leaves of the trees, while the gentle motion of his paddles or hands help him to keep his upright position. His body, ten or twelve feet long, is dark gray with a few bristles about one inch in length here and there on the skin.

The stream was clear, and the movements of the manga could be easily seen as he swam and moved along eating the leaves. The ndovas watched the manga with great curiosity; they were not afraid, for they knew he could not climb trees. Then they continued their journey.

That evening the ndovas all went to sleep with a sorrowful heart, especially the two that had lost their companions.

At daybreak they continued their journey. They met soon after their departure with a great adventure. They came to a tree in one of whose hollows was a beehive. Immediately the bees attacked the ndovas with great fierceness and stung several of them. They uttered loud cries of pain, and all fled with the greatest haste, shouting in the language of the ndovas, “Horrid bees! Horrid bees!”

Toward noon the troop came to a number of trees covered with nice fruit. As they were eating quietly, they heard the sound of a moving branch, telling them that another troop of monkeys was coming. The noise became more distinct; evidently the strangers were coming in their direction. They remained silent, so as not to give them a clew to their whereabouts, for fear of having to divide their find of fruit with them.

They heard the loud voices of the long, black shaggy-haired mondi, the largest of the monkey tribe. Soon they were on a tree near them. The mondis were furious when they found out that the ndovas were there first, for they knew the place, and had hoped to reach it before any other troop of monkeys.

The mondis uttered their war-cry. It is indeed a fearful one,—one that can be heard at a great distance.

This was answered by the war-cry of the ndovas, but the latter was faint compared with that of the mondis. The hair of the ndovas stood erect, their eyes glared at their enemies, and the mondis’ eyes glared at the ndovas.

The ndovas were more numerous than the mondis, but these were more heavily built, and far stronger. They had immense canine teeth, which could go deep into the flesh; and though the ndovas had good ones also, they were not so large. It is true the ndovas had quicker motions and were far more agile.

[Illustration: [Monkeys]]

The mondis came nearer and nearer. Their looks were fiercer and fiercer. The mondis defied the ndovas, and the ndovas defied the mondis. The noise both troops made was fearful. At last the mondis leaped upon the trees where the ndovas were, and attacked them. The ndovas were soon routed and had to flee, leaving the fruit-bearing tree in complete possession of the long black-haired mondis.

The mondis started at once to eat, for they were very hungry. They had hardly begun their meal, however, the ndovas looking at them from a tree near by, full of anger, when there appeared upon the scene two nshiegos (large full-grown apes), who also knew these trees and came to eat their fruit. They were very angry when they saw the mondis were there before them, for they too had come from a long distance. They gave tremendous yells, and the frightened mondis fled in great haste, for the nshiegos, with their long, powerful arms, would have made short work of them.

“Good for you!” shouted the ndovas to the nshiegos when they saw they had driven away the mondis. The nshiegos ate everything in sight.

The ndovas travelled every day toward the Land of Plenty, and had to pass through a part of the forest where nuts, fruits, and berries were very scarce, for the fruit season had passed. Other troops of monkeys, large flocks of toucans (a bird with a huge bill), and other large birds had been there before them.

They agreed to travel in squads, so that they could get food more easily,—for there was not enough for all of them when they were together,—and then to meet at a certain place before sunset, the leader of each squad having been in the country before, on their way to the Land of Plenty. They had a hard time to get their living on that day. Fortunately the Land of Plenty was not far off, and at last they entered its borders.