CHAPTER XXVI

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."

"No," said Rogala, "monkeys are like people; they are afraid of snakes and do not play with them."

I took Ndova on my knees and examined his body, on which I discovered a red spot, showing that he had been stung either by a scorpion or a centipede.

"Look!" I said to Rogala, pointing out the place to him. "Ndova has been stung by a scorpion or a centipede."

"It is so," replied Rogala.

There are two or three species of centipedes and scorpions; the very poisonous ones are dark red, almost black. Rogala looked carefully at the red spot, and then said in a thoughtful and sad voice: "I am afraid it is all over with Ndova, for we black men die of the sting of this bad kind of scorpion and centipede, or else, if we escape, we are very