THE PEOPLE SCARED. 59 
ful forest, and I went to sleep happy: but during the 
night I awoke, uttering a tremendous shout which made 
my men laugh, for they had been up for some time in 
order to eata little more of the gorilla meat. I had the 
nightmare, and had dreamed that I was pursued by half 
a dozen gorillas, and when I gave that awful shriek I 
had just fancied that one of these monsters was clutching 
me and was going to carry me away to the forest, 
We were tired and worn out, but at last we reached 
a deserted village which we had found before our hunt- 
ing and where we had our camp. Judge of our astonish- 
ment when I found the place in possession of a division 
of travelling Bakalais! The village was full of them: 
men, women, children and babies were there; they had 
quantities of food; all their baggage, composed of old bask- 
ets, cooking-pots, calabashes, mats; and all their farming 
implements. The men were all armed. | 
My apparition among them threw them into the utmost 
confusion, and if I had not been followed by Miengai, who 
shouted to them to keep still, they would have fled; but 
after a while we were great friends, especially after I had 
distributed a few beads among the women. 
They had been living on the banks of a river called 
Noya, and were moving far from that place toward an- 
other village where the old chief had two or three sons- 
in-law and the same number of fathers-in-law. 
These people seemed to be in dread of something. 
They seemed to be in retreat, as though they had fled 
from their former place of abode. 
I learned that, a few days before, one of their men 
while bathing in the river had been killed by some un- 
known enemy. Hereupon they were seized with a pan- 
