IN AFRICAN FOREST AND JUNGLE 



each. But soon the voices or sounds gradually seemed 

 to be ahead of us and became more and more distant. 

 They had passed us. 



" After they meet," said Rogala, " the female ngina, 

 as it is getting late, will go up a tree to sleep with her 

 baby if she has one, and the big fellow will sleep 

 at the foot of the tree, his back resting against its 

 trunk, and there keep watch. We will sleep in the 

 forest to-night. We have koola nuts in our bags, 

 and we will eat these for our evening and morn- 

 ing meals, and we will go after the nginas to-morrow 

 at daybreak." 



The nginas' tremendous voices gradually died away, 

 till one might have thought it was the dying reverber- 

 ation in the far distance of claps of thunder. 



We slept at the foot of a large tree, and made a 

 very small fire, for we did not dare to sleep without 

 one. We had collected the firewood very quietly. 



At daylight we were up, and followed the path 

 leading towards the place where we thought the goril- 

 las had slept. We had walked several miles, and I 

 was ahead of Rogala, when suddenly I thought I 

 heard the breaking of branches ahead of me. Could 

 it be possible that a camp of natives was on our way. 

 I thought perhaps I had made a mistake, and that 

 the noise had been made by elephants either breaking 



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