THE PRIMEVAL FORESTS OF CENTRAL AFRICA. 233 



now merry, and continues with equal expressiveness and persistence; 

 a dozen others join in at once, and strive in eager rivalry for the 

 victor's crown; some hysenas who seem just to have been waiting 

 for these unrivalled leaders to begin, join the chorus. They howl 

 and laugh, moan piteously, and shout triumphantly; a panther 

 grunts, a lion roars; even a hippopotamus in the river lifts up his 

 paltry voice and grunts. 



Thus does night reveal itself in the primeval forest; thus did it 

 claim ear and eye on that never-to-be-forgotten day. Beetles and 

 cicadas, owls and goat-suckers had begun: then a loud, rumbling 

 noise, as of trumpets blown by unskilful mouths, resounded through 

 the forest. At once the songs of our Albanian, and the chattering 

 of our servants and sailors were hushed; all listened as we did. 

 Once more came the trumpeting and rumbling from the opposite 

 bank. " M fiuhl, el fiuhl!" called the natives; "Elephants, ele- 

 phants!" we, too, exclaimed triumphantly. It was the first time 

 that we had seen and heard the giant pachyderms, though we had 

 constantly trodden their paths and followed their traces. From the 

 opposite bank the great forms, which could be plainly enough seen 

 in the twilight, descended leisurely and confidently to the water, to 

 drink and bathe. One after another dipped his supple trunk in the 

 water, to fill it, and discharge it into his wide mouth, or over his 

 back and shoulders; one after another descended into the river to 

 refresh himself in the cooling flood. Then the noises became so great 

 that it seemed as if the elephants' trumpeting had acted as an awake- 

 ning call. Earlier than ever before, the king of the wilderness raised 

 his thundering voice; a second and a third lion responded to the 

 kingly greeting. The sleep-drunken monkeys and the timid ante- 

 lopes cried out in terror. A hippopotamus reared his uncouth head 

 quite close to our boat, and growled as if he would emulate the lion's 

 roar; a leopard also made himself heard; jackals gave vent to the 

 most varied song we had ever heard from them, the striped hysenas 

 howled, the spotted ones uttered their hellish, blood-curdling laugh- 

 ter, and, careless of the uproar which the heralds and the king of 

 the forest had conjured up, the frogs continued to utter their mono- 

 tonous call, and the cicadas their bell-like chirping. 



