At dawn of day we left our encampment. About two hours afterwards we came upon three little houses surrounded by plantain trees. The houses were in a dilapidated state and had been abandoned. The large bunches of plantain that were hanging from the trees were untouched, for the elephants and the big apes, the "men of the woods," had not found the plantation.
Some time before we had reached the place Rogala's face had become uneasy. He took to the opposite bank of the river. I could see fear on his countenance. He paddled faster than ever, and his mind seemed quite relieved when we had left the spot far behind us. Then he stopped, tied the canoe to a tree to rest a while, and said: "Two dry seasons ago there lived on the plantation we have passed a man by the name of Igala. His wife was called Yienoo. Both were sorcerers, and had been so for a long time, though the people did not know it. Near them was a village. One day one of the men of the village was trampled to death by a bull elephant, and there was great sorrow among the people. The day after a leopard came into the village at night and carried away a woman. The people began to think it was strange that those two deaths should occur one immediately after the other, and they became much alarmed, and believed that witchcraft was the cause of the trouble, but no one suspected who the sorcerers were. Some time afterwards a man disappeared and never came back. After this the people were so much excited that they sent a messenger to a celebrated 'medicine man' who was known all over the country for his skill in discovering sorcerers. They promised to pay him two slaves if he would come. The name of this great 'ooganga,' or medicine man, was Makoonga; he is living now. He sent word by the messenger that he would come after his return from another village where he was going to find out who had killed by witchcraft the brother of the chief.
[Illustration: "_We raised our guns and aimed at the two biggest white-nosed ones and fired._"]
"There was great joy in the village when the messenger brought back word that Makoonga was coming. Three days after the return of the messenger another man disappeared, and remains of his body were discovered, showing that he had been devoured by a leopard. Then all the people said that some one among them had changed his shape and turned into a leopard, that he had eaten up the three persons who had disappeared, and had also taken the shape of an elephant and trodden upon the man who had been killed in that way.