THE NATIVE DOGS—HOW THEY HUNT THEIR OWN GAME WHEN THEY ARE NOT FED—THEIR WAYS OF ATTACK—THEIR USEFULNESS TO THEIR MASTERS IN WAR-TIME—OSHORIA’S STORY.

One morning I was surprised not to see a single dog on the plantation, and I wondered where they could have gone.

“Where are all the dogs?” I asked Regundo.

“Oguizi,” he replied, “all the dogs have gone to the forest. They act in this way when they are hungry. They found that we had no food for them, and, having gnawed all the bones they had hidden in the ground, they thought it was time to go and hunt by themselves, and feed on what they could catch. Often they spend the whole day hunting, and do not return before sunset, sometimes not until the next day, when they find out an old camp to sleep in. Dogs are very sly. They have a leader; they understand him, and they understand each other. One by one they leave the plantation and meet outside.”

I had been wondering, since I came, what the poor dogs had to eat, for no one ever gave them food. They seemed to feed only on the bones that were thrown to them. The hungry dogs were always watching the movements of the people, though they appeared as if asleep. But this was only a blind, for as soon as a house was left vacant, they immediately got up and entered the place to see if there were any food to steal. All these native dogs are great thieves, and wherever they have a chance they steal, and it is very seldom they miss the opportunity offered. As soon as they get a bone they go to a lonely spot where they are safe from the other dogs, and when tired of gnawing it, they hide it in the ground, and never forget the spot where they have left it when they want it again.

In the evening the dogs made their appearance before the houses of their respective masters. They had evidently been unsuccessful in their hunt, and had had nothing to eat, to judge by the pinched appearance of their stomachs. A few pieces of manioc, just enough to prevent them from dying of starvation, were thrown to them, after which they fell asleep, as they were very tired.

“It is not good for dogs to be too well fed,” said Regundo to me.

After what Regundo had told me, I watched the dogs every day, and found that, though they belonged to different masters, they formed a pack amongst themselves, and that they understood each other thoroughly. I discovered that “Fierce” was their leader. When they wanted to go a hunting together, they did not bark. On the contrary, they were very sly, and looked at each other with a peculiar expression of their eyes, which meant one thing or another to them.

How “Fierce” had become their leader I could not tell, except that he could attack with fierceness, and could bite savagely. Physically he was the strongest of all the dogs; hence he ruled over the others. He was always the first to leave, and the others followed. He generally went to see the other dogs before they started. He always led in the attack, and seemed to prevent the other dogs from being too forward in the fray. When he retreated, they retreated, and in some way, unknown to me, each dog was given his proper position in the attack.

One morning when I got up I found that the dogs had again left, and no one had seen them go away, or could tell whither they had gone. “They are very hungry,” said Regundo, “and will continue to go into the forest until they have killed some game, and thus have their hunger satisfied.”

Towards sunset the dogs returned. What a sight they presented! their muzzles were red with the blood of the animals they had killed and eaten. Some were wounded. One had its ears cut almost in two. Another had the end of one of its ears bitten off. Another had the upper lip cut. Three had their backs somewhat lacerated. Suddenly Rogola said, “Where is my dog ‘Spear’? I do not see him among the others; he must have been killed in his fight with the wild beasts.” It was no doubt so, for “Spear” was never seen again. Regundo gave it as his opinion that the dogs that came in with their ears and lips cut, had fought with monkeys they had surprised on the ground. Those whose backs were lacerated had been wounded by wild boars; and they had succeeded in killing some animal, and had devoured it; hence their bloody muzzles.

Some of the men attended to the wounded dogs, and said that in a few days they would be all right again. The dogs had evidently fed well that day; soon after their return they all were fast asleep under the piazzas of their masters’ houses. Three days afterwards all the dogs that were not wounded disappeared again and went to the forest to hunt. They were evidently on the scent of game, for we heard them barking. Regundo took his gun, to be ready, but gradually their bark became fainter and finally died away. The game had escaped them.

“Sometimes the dogs have great trouble in chasing an antelope,” said Regundo to me, “for these animals are very fleet. Often they tire the dogs; these then gradually fall behind, and the antelope escapes.”

Early the following morning Oshoria, Ogoola, Ngola, Quabi, and I went after antelopes. The men had their dogs with them. These were soon out of sight, and as we went along on the hunting path, my hunters would call them. After walking about three hours we heard the dogs bark. “They are running after an antelope,” said Oshoria. The barking came nearer. Soon it was very close to us and we were watching intently when an antelope, followed closely by the dogs, dashed by us. We fired, and the beautiful animal fell dead. We had the greatest trouble to keep the dogs at a distance, and we could not do so until we had cut off the legs and some of the meat of the animal and thrown these to them.

In the evening, as my hunters and I were seated by a bright fire, they told stories of dogs.

Oshoria’s story, which was the longest, was as follows: “Some dogs are very useful in time of war, for they can find men hiding behind trees, and warn us of their presence. One day, years ago, I was on the war-path. I had then a dog called ‘Idombe.’ He was very cunning, and followed me always in the forest in war times. I had trained him never to bark when he discovered a stranger, but to come back to me. At that time the enemies of King Mombo would lie in wait for his people along the paths in the forest, then attack them suddenly. Sometimes there were two or three together, and sometimes but one. I had gone to reconnoitre, and had Idombe with me. He was scouring the forest in every direction ahead of me as I went along. Sometimes I lost sight of him. Once when he reappeared and came towards me, when he was near enough he looked at me and made me signs to follow him, which I did, for I knew that he had seen something unusual. Suspecting danger, and fearing a sudden attack, I walked most carefully, at the same time stopping every few steps and looking around and even up into the trees. Suddenly Idombe barked fiercely, looking in a certain direction, turning towards which I saw a spear fly out and graze Idombe’s body. This was followed by an arrow, which imbedded its head in a tree near him.

“I looked all around. At first I could see no enemy. Then I saw two men near together lying flat on the ground among the leaves; one had a bunch of barbed spears by his side, the other a bow and a bag filled with arrows. I came forward, giving the cry of King Mombo. This was immediately answered by the same cry, which meant peace. These two men belonged to a friendly clan, whose warriors had come to side with King Mombo. Poor Idombe had a narrow escape.

“The next day I went again into the forest with Idombe. I had lost sight of him and wondered where he had gone, when I heard him give a certain cry of pain, as if some one were choking him. I went in that direction and came to a little pool of water where animals came to drink, for there were many footprints round it. Then I saw a very large python squeezing poor Idombe tightly within its powerful folds. The dog was dead, its head was already in the mouth of the big snake. It is the habit of these big pythons to lie by pools coiled round a tree of the color of their skin and wait for their prey; then they spring upon their victims and, squeezing them to death, swallow them slowly.

“Our dogs are brave and a number of them are not even afraid of leopards. These leopards, when they become man-eaters, like the meat of man better than any other. Some years ago a leopard prowling near our plantation succeeded, to our great sorrow, in killing and devouring two people, a man and a woman. Our idol said that we must go and hunt the leopard. Then, taking our dogs with us, we went in search of him. After a while we heard the fierce barking of the dogs. They had discovered the leopard’s lair, and we came up just in time to see a huge male leopard spring upon one of the dogs and crush him between his jaws. With fierce glaring eyes he looked at us, then he let the dog drop from his mouth and lay flat on the ground ready to spring on one of us. But we were ready for the beast, and before he had time to spring we fired and killed him on the spot. The belt I wear is from the skin of this leopard.”

When the leopard story was ended it was time to go to sleep, and we all left for our respective quarters bidding each other good-night.