CHAPTER XXV
A HUGE OMBAMA, OR PYTHON
An enormous-sized ombama, about thirty feet long, said to himself one day: “I am so big now that I do not feed on small game. I like to feed on kambis and ncheris. I am so hungry that I must find out a good place to coil myself in and there wait for prey that may pass by me.” He wanted a tree having a bark near the color of his skin.
As he crawled along, he looked for such a tree. He passed hundreds of trees, nay, thousands. Some of them were nearly of his color, but he thought that he would find more deceiving ones still, so that when he was coiled round their trunks, the antelopes, the gazelles, the boars, and other animals could not detect him. So he went on his way, meeting many snakes. Some said, “I am journeying toward the villages of men, and intend to stay in a house and watch for rats.” Others said, “I am going for ducks, chickens, and hen’s eggs; but if I can get a goat, I will coil round and swallow him.” But the big ombama had made up his mind to have a kambi for a meal.
After a long search he saw a tree, the bark of which was the color of his skin. Then he said: “This is the tree for me. Animals will come near it without seeing me. How I shall deceive them!”
He coiled around the trunk and waited patiently for a kambi, a ncheri, or a ngoa, or any other big animal of the forest, for he hoped that some of them, unaware of his presence, would soon pass by. He listened for sounds telling him of the coming of his unsuspected victims. His head and neck, at some distance from the trunk of the tree, moved one way and another, and his piercing eyes glanced around in all directions. He said to himself: “I must be patient, for sometimes at the end of the day, and when I least expect it, some animal makes its appearance and I spring upon him, wind around him, and squeeze him to death in my vise-like coils, which become tighter and tighter until I crush him.”
He waited and waited, but nothing came that way. So he had to go without food that day, saying to himself, “The life of the ombamas is not always a pleasant one. How often I have to work hard for my living!” He left the place hungry and much disappointed, and remembered, although he had not been in that part of the forest for a long time, that there was a pond in the neighborhood.
After some wandering he came to this pond, which was a large pool of clear water fed by a spring. There he stopped and said, “Surely some of the animals of the forest will come here to drink.” And as he looked around, he saw footprints of kambis and ncheris and other creatures. He was delighted, and at the sight thought that he should soon get a good meal. He saw a tree by the water of the same color as his skin and coiled himself around it and waited. His head and neck were in constant motion, looking out for prey. “Surely some animal will come toward sunset,” he thought, “for that is the time when they come to drink.” He knew well the habits of the kambis and the ncheris and ngoas and other animals upon which he lived.
Soon an unsuspecting kambi made his appearance, nibbling at a few leaves as she came toward the pool to have a drink. The big ombama looked at her with glaring eyes, and when she came within a short distance of his tree, he made a tremendous spring, and in the twinkling of an eye his body was coiled round the poor creature and squeezed her so tightly that at last she died.
Then the ombama had very hard work, for the kambi was too big for him to swallow. So he used all his strength to make the body smaller and smaller by crushing it. It was a slow but sure process, and he succeeded. When he thought the kambi was ready for eating, he put the head in his mouth, after it had been properly crushed by his powerful coils, and then began another squeezing process, which made the rest of the animal small enough to be gradually swallowed. Before the kambi was digested, and while it was still whole in his body, it was nearly three times the length it had been when alive.
Soon after his meal, the big ombama fell asleep,—a lethargic, digestive sleep among the dead leaves on the ground. The ombamas and omembas always fall into such sleep when they have had a hearty meal and digest it. Lucky was the big ombama that no enemy passed by, nor a njokoo to trample upon him.
After digesting his meal, which took a number of days, he awoke, and, encountering the omembas he had met before, he asked for news. One who had been in the chicken-coop said: “I had a big rooster and all the eggs I found in one of the hens’ nests for my meal. After this, I went immediately away, for I hate an open place, and hid in the forest and went to sleep.” Another omemba said, “As I came into the village, I saw a small dog, and sprang upon him and coiled myself around him and ate him up.”
Then they parted, each going his own way.
The big ombama, after his sleep and recollection of the big meal of the kambi, felt very well and journeyed toward a river of clear water and there took a bath and enjoyed it. His skin was becoming dim in color and shabby, and he longed for another one. One day he felt his old skin getting loose, and said to himself, “It is time for me to have a brand-new coat. I am ashamed of this old one, it is so shabby and worn out.”
Then he pushed himself through with his head, and, lo! in a short time his old coat from head to tail was behind him. He had come out of his old clothes with a bright and shining outfit. As he moved away, he said, “Good-by, dear old coat, good-by, good-by.” Now he felt like himself again and said, “I am glad I have such a fine new coat and have left the old one. I am handsome now.”
After changing his skin the big ombama became hungry again, and finding a suitable tree, he coiled round it and waited for prey. He saw strange sights. As he was looking round, he saw a big black and yellow tree-snake crawling near his tree, and watched him. The tree omemba stopped, and said to himself: “I am hungry. I live chiefly upon trees, and I will ascend one and will look out for a monkey, a bird, or a large squirrel if I come near enough. I look at them and try to put them under my spell, so that they will be paralyzed and will not be able to run away from me.”
Then he raised himself and coiled round the trunk of a small tree, and crawled upwards until he reached one of its branches, and then travelled from this branch to one from another tree, and so on for many trees. This was easy, for the branches were all intermingled with one another. His cunning eyes were looking everywhere as he crept along, seeking for monkeys, big birds, or squirrels. He moved so slyly that he did not make the slightest noise, even less than the wind passing through the branches. Suddenly he saw a monkey quite by himself. He crawled toward the poor monkey as fast as he could, and at last came near enough to coil himself up without being detected. This he was obliged to do as a preliminary, since the omembas cannot spring upon their prey except when they are coiled up, for when they are extended to their full length they have no power.
He looked at the monkey intently, and, as it were, magnetized the poor creature, who looked at him in the greatest terror. The eyes of the ombama never left him. He was charming his prey, and said, “Now I am going to charm the monkey, and he will then be unable to escape me.” The omemba glided toward the monkey, and when he had come near enough, he sprang upon him quicker than an arrow flying through the air and coiled round him in the twinkling of an eye, and his coils soon crushed the life out of him.
After his meal the omemba came down the tree, having found a comfortable place where he thought himself safe, and fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke he felt like taking a bath, and went to a beautiful clear limpid stream, and after a swim coiled himself round the branch of a tree under water, after which he went in search of prey again, as he had done during all the days of his life.
The big ombama had also succeeded in capturing a big ncheri, and after his meal fell asleep in the midst of a mass of dead leaves that were more or less of the color of his skin.
It happened the next day that a rogue elephant, who was wandering all alone, passed near the big ombama. The njokoo became angry at the sight of him. He advanced toward him and trampled upon him several times until he was dead. Then he uttered sharp trumpetings of satisfaction for what he had done. The njokoos hate serpents and trample upon them whenever they can.