So we began to think, and finally Rogala said: "I did not speak to him in the Osheba language."
"Why," said I, "do you think he is a cannibal?"
Rogala spoke to him then in Osheba, and had uttered but a few words when the man's face brightened up, for he found that we should be able to understand him. He was a cannibal. There was no doubt about it.
Several days passed by. We got along very well with our captive, although he was kept in stocks. He seemed contented with his lot. He found that we treated him otherwise like one of ourselves. He ate with us, and consequently had the same food. When food was very scarce, we divided it equally among us, but of course when we had only nuts or berries he had only these to eat, and if we were hungry he had to go hungry also.
Several times I proposed to Rogala to take him out of the nchogo, but Rogala was always unwilling. Thinking that he was wiser than I in this matter, as he knew the native character better than I did, I let him have his own way.
We had given the name of Akenda-Mbani ("never go twice to the same place") to our prisoner, for we knew that he would never go back to his own country.
One afternoon Shinshooko and Alapai made their appearance, bringing with them four elephants' tusks. They had found two elephants in the pits they had dug in the forest for the purpose of entrapping the huge beasts.
They were very much astonished when they saw Akenda-Mbani and we told them how we had captured him.
NDOVA FALLS SICK--STUNG BY A SCORPION OR BITTEN BY A CENTIPEDE--REFUSES TO EAT--GROWS WEAKER IN SPITE OF ALL OUR CARE AND NURSING--ONE MORNING I FIND HIM DEAD--WE MAKE A COFFIN FOR HIM AND BURY HIM IN THE FOREST
THE following morning, to my astonishment and no small consternation, Ndova was ill, and refused to eat the berries and nuts given to him, of which ordinarily he was very fond. He looked at them, but would not even take them in his hands. His body was hot, and it was evident that he had a high fever. His heart beat very fast. It was very strange, I thought; he had been so well the evening before.
I said to Rogala: "I wonder if Ndova could have been stung by a scorpion or a centipede during the night, or perhaps a small poisonous snake entered his house and bit him when he tried to play with it."