198 MAYOLO. Chap. IX. 



took his daughter with him, saying that her husband 

 should never see her again ; but the damsel gave her 

 father the slip before night and returned to her hus- 

 band. There was general rejoicing in the village, 

 and Oshoumouna bragged greatly of the love and 

 fidelity of his wife, although she accounted for her 

 return by saying that she loved the place where the 

 Oguizi was, for there she could get beads. 



During the latter part of my stay at Mayolo, I had 

 in my possession a beautiful little nocturnal animal, 

 of the Lemur family, an Oiolicmis, called by the 

 negroes Ibola. It is nocturnal in its habits, and has 

 immensely large eyes, and a fur so soft that it re- 

 minded me of the Chinchilla. I had it about a fort- 

 night. The species lives in the forests, retiring in 

 the day time to the hollows of trees, where it sleeps 

 till the hour of its activity returns ; but it sometimes 

 also conceals itself in the midst of masses of dead 

 boughs of trees, where dajdight cannot penetrate. 

 In broad daylight you could see by the twinkling of 

 its eyes and its efforts to conceal itself, that light 

 was painful to it. At first I had no means of pro- 

 tecting it during the day, and the delicate little 

 creature used to cover its eyes with its tail to keep 

 out the light. Nothing but ripe plantains would it 

 accept for food. I was much grieved one morning 

 to find the poor Ibola dead, for it had become quite 

 tame, and liked to be caressed. 



My boy Macondai was now entirely recovered, 

 with the exception of sore eyes, from which many 

 negroes suffer after the small-pox has disappeared ; 

 some lose their sight from the efiects of the disease ; 



