If I could have followed Rogala with my eyes on his way from the time he left the camp, I could have seen him (as I afterwards learned from his own account, when he returned) the first day tramping along as fast as he could, now and then stopping and taking his idol from his bag and putting it on the ground, and then talking to her as he would to an old trusted friend; asking her to protect him against witchcraft, to kill his enemies, and to let him go back safe to the Oguizi. When the evening came, he lighted several fires, and took again his little idol from his bag, and made numerous invocations to her. Poor Rogala was very unhappy, for he was fully persuaded that somebody had bewitched him. During the night he heard an owl, and he thought some of his enemies had taken that shape and were following him.
The following day, at daybreak, Rogala left the place where he had slept, and walked as fast as his legs could carry him; then he came to a small plantation where lived a great medicine man, and promised him three brass rods which I had given him if he would follow him. The medicine man assented; then they went to a place where years before Rogala had buried a powerful mondah to drive away witchcraft from the place.
The medicine man made many incantations over the mondah before Rogala dug it out. The mondah was composed of several skulls of nshiegos and bones of other animals. When he had dug up all the relics, Rogala packed them carefully in the otaitai he had with him, then rose and retraced his steps towards our camp, carrying with him the powerful mondah which was to drive away witchcraft from our camp. He was now happy.
The morning of the day that Rogala had promised to return I went into the forest without taking Ndova or Andekko with me. I had "Bulldog,"--not that I wanted to use it, but I thought it was prudent to have my most powerful weapon with me; "for, who knows?" said I to myself, "somebody might come into our camp and steal my best friend 'Bulldog.' It is better to be on the safe side in case something unforeseen should happen." I also took with me a hundred steel-pointed bullets.
I found a place where there was a kind of berry I had not seen before, but I did not dare to eat any before Ndova had tasted of them. I took a few of them with me to give them to him on my return. If they were good, then I would come to get more the following day. I continued to go further, thinking that I might find a koola tree, when, to my terror, I found that I had been on the point of stepping over a huge snake, my heel almost brushing it as it touched the ground. The snake lay across the path, and was just the color of the dead leaves. I ran instinctively from the reptile, then stopped. I could not help it, but every time I came unawares upon a dangerous snake my first impulse was always to move away quickly. Then, when I thought I was out of danger, I took my hunting-knife and cut a long, somewhat slender stick, then retraced my steps and looked at the snake. It was thick and short, with a triangular head. I could see by the shape of its head that it was poisonous. Raising my stick, I let it fall heavily upon its spine, breaking it and thus preventing the ugly reptile from turning upon me and from retreating or advancing. But the breaking of his spine did not prevent him from hissing at me when I faced him. Another blow crushed his head; his fangs could not possibly do any more harm, and how big these were! I cut his head off and threw it away. Then I saw that he had swallowed a tiny little gazelle that was not yet digested. I cut the snake into several pieces to take with me to the camp, for I knew that my hunters were very fond of snakes. Then I retraced my steps towards the camp.