They Were In Want Of Meat,
Having Tasted Nothing But Grain For Several Days.
The desire for animal food
made them all eager to slay him, and, though an old bull, he was soon killed.
The people of Nyampungo had never seen such desperadoes before.
One rushed up and hamstrung the beast, while still standing,
by a blow with an axe.
Some Banyai elephant-hunters happened to be present
when my men were fighting with him. One of them took out his snuff-box,
and poured out all its contents at the root of a tree
as an offering to the Barimo for success. As soon as the animal fell,
the whole of my party engaged in a wild, savage dance round the body,
which quite frightened the Banyai, and he who made the offering said to me,
"I see you are traveling with people who don't know how to pray:
I therefore offered the only thing I had in their behalf,
and the elephant soon fell." One of Nyampungo's men, who remained with me,
ran a little forward, when an opening in the trees gave us
a view of the chase, and uttered loud prayers for success in the combat.
I admired the devout belief they all possessed in the actual existence
of unseen beings, and prayed that they might yet know that benignant One
who views us all as his own. My own people, who are rather a degraded lot,
remarked to me as I came up, "God gave it to us.
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