MEN OF THE TREES 



In a little while I found that I could converse with him 

 through one of my carriers and I learnt that he had been 

 lying there for two moons. I gathered also that his woman 

 had gone out to fetch food. Very soon she returned carry- 

 ing in one hand a large bow and dragging behind her a 

 young antelope which she had shot for the pot. Hanging 

 the result of the chase on a nearby tree she picked up her 

 water pot, and apparently without noticing me went off 

 to fetch water. 



The sun was by now very hot and was beating down 

 on the little clearing. I ordered my carriers to make a 

 stretcher, which they very quickly did, from strips of 

 bark and staves, and we carefully lifted the old man on 

 to it in spite of his protestations. In a little while the 

 woman returned to find that the carriers were about to 

 remove her man and she burst into a frenzy of rage. Like 

 some wild creature trapped in a corner she sprang with 

 one bound upon the carriers, who were about to shoulder 

 their load, and quickly drove the four of them, stalwart 

 fellows though they were, into the surrounding bush. 

 She next returned to her man, bent down over the 

 stretcher and, after caressingly running her hands over 

 him from the soles of his feet to his shoulders, knelt by 

 his side with one hand on each of his arms, fixed him with 

 her shining eyes and burst into an impassioned musical 

 speech. In a moment it was as though a spell had been 

 cast upon him. He answered with his eyes but did not 

 utter a word. She stopped speaking and half raising him 



56 



