ON THE HUNTING GROUND. 11 



eating the gorilla. They carefully set apart the brains 

 to make magic charms. " If we kill a gorilla to- 

 morrow," said a black, " I should like to have a part 

 of his brains for fetiche." Nothing can render a man 

 more intrepid than having a gorilla's brains tor' fetiche. 

 " Yes," repeated the other, " that gives heart for every 

 danger." 



III. ON THE HUNTING GROUND. 



ACCOMPANIED by men and women of the tribe of Mbon- 

 demos, M. du Chaillu, ascending the second range of 

 the Sierra del Crystal, at length came upon an open 

 space of ground, not far from the sources of the 

 Ntambonny, where once had been established a Mbon- 

 demo village. A degenerate kind of sugar-cane was 

 growing where the houses had once stood. Tormented 

 by hunger, the traveller had hastened to gather some of 

 the stalks, but his men drew his attention to a cir- 

 cumstance which gave quite a new turn to his ideas. 

 Here and there the cane was beaten down, torn up by 

 the roots, and lying about in fragments, which had 

 evidently been chewed. The Mbondernos looked at 

 each other in silence, and muttered, " Njena ! " that 

 is to say, " Gorilla," 



They were, in fact, traces of gorillas, and traces, 

 too, quite fresh. They soon found the tracks of their 



