262 FEOM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



brought in their strange spoils to the chief, who then marched 

 triumphantly down the street with all the village following 

 him ; the hunters carrying many animals as strange as the 

 mysterious forest that bred them ; gigantic forest rats with 

 white bellies, two feet from head to tail, others a rich red- 

 brown with backs marked like chess-boards and snouts as long 

 as ant-eaters ; grizzly mongooses that rob fowls of their eggs 

 by night, breaking them upon stones before eating them ; 

 sweet-faced phalangers, with eyes like saucers and as clear as 

 amber ; pangolins with arched and scaly backs like coats 

 of mail, that steal through the dark places of the forest 

 thrusting their long tongues like swords into the holes of the 

 white ant ; huge vampire bats with teeth like sharks, and 

 many other strange animals that had never before been seen. 



Gosling describes how one afternoon two hunters came 

 into camp, to the accompaniment of a tom-tom improvised 

 out ofj^bark for the occasion, supporting on their shoulders 

 a pole to which was slung a small squirrel which they laid in 

 triumph at his feet. 



The Mobatti enjoyed it all hugely, for they are cheerful 

 people, and the women and children are always laughing. 

 In the early morning they are to be seen coming out of their 

 huts, one bearing a lighted stick which has been kept alive 

 all night ; with this they make a fire and cook their mid-day 

 meal, keeping themselves warm till the sun is up above the 

 trees. Here they sit laughing and talking and nursing 

 their children till the men return at noon to eat. And so 

 they continue for the rest of the day till the fires are lit 

 again to cook the evening meal, which the foresters, unlike 

 the people of the open, eat after dark. 



