The Brave African Huntress by Amos Tutuola

that spot. As they were running to and fro, they raised up their heads and they were sniffing my smell. After a while they saw me as I sat on the branch of that tree and by this time their attitudes were more terrible because they wanted to eat me. As they were surrounded the tree closely it was so the strong wind was forcing it to touch the ground repeatedly. Each time that it touched the ground these wild animals were hastily jumping to where I sat on the branch, but they were unable to touch me before the tree would stand upright again. It was like that these wild animals were jumping to me every time that the tree was bending down and getting up again. Luckily they were unable to take me away from the top of this tree until when the strong wind was stoppedat about seven o’clock in the evening. But as their attitudes were too terrible so I shouted with fear until my voice was not heard clearly again before the wind was stopped. I attempted to be shooting these wild animals to death with my gun but the wind was blowing the tree so swiftly that I was unable to sight anything by that time.
    But after the wind stopped blowing and all the trees stood quietly, I thought that these wild animals would go away but they did not attempt, they surrounded the tree and were looking at me as I sat on the branch of that tree. When I believed that they would not attempt to go away, then I began to shoot them with my “shakabullah” gun and when I killed nearly half of them the rest went away with fear. When I kept watch for a few minutes perhaps they hid near there but they had gone away then I came down from this tree. I took the smallest one of those which I killed and then I left that area as soon as possible.
    When I travelled far away in the darkness, as it was then nine o’clock, for I heard when a dove gave the sign of time by that time. So I stopped under a tree which was almost covered by the running plants. I made a big fire, after I cut that animal into several parts then I started to roast them with this fire. One hour later they were roasted enough and I ate as much as I could from them. After that I gathered refuses and dried leaves together near this fire, I lay down on them, I put my head on my hunting bag as if it was a pillow. I lay the two poisonous cudgels at my left and my gun at my right, but I still held it with fear until I fell asleep unnoticed.
    Of course, I was woken very early in the morning with great fear of the numerous birds which were surrounded me and they were crying repeatedly because I was curious to them. At the same time that I woke and I saw that I was already surrounded by these birds, I simply took my gun, hunting bag, cudgels and my cutlass and I left that spot. But to my fear these birds werestill following me and they were still crying with their loudest voices. I was running away from them so that they might not suspect me to those super-human creatures. Luckily when I travelled to the darkest part of this jungle they could not see me again and then they went back from me.
    It was like that I was travelling along and I was looking here and there perhaps I would see my four brothers in respect of whom I came to hunt in this jungle, till the light of the sun came down to all over the jungle when it was about nine o’clock and then I stopped. But when I felt to eat and there was nothing inside my hunting bag to eat. I started to look for a small animal to be killed. After a while I came across a small porcupine and I shot it to death at once. I made a fire and I roasted it in it and I ate the whole of it at a time because it was fatty. After I ate the porcupine to my satisfaction, I began to think in mind whether to kill the whole of the wild animals first, which would be the great obstacles to me when I would be looking for my four brothers or to be looking for my brothers first, before I would come back to these wild animals or to be looking for where the pigmies were living in this jungle