The World of the Great Forest

Several herds of njokoos that had been hunted mercilessly by men in the immense shrub-covered country in which they had lived all their lives, encountered one another one day. Wherever they went, the hand of the human beings was against them. If they went one way, they met them; if they went another, they met them again. They had no peace, and were relentlessly pursued everywhere.

So the njokoos hated human beings, and wondered how a creature so small, compared with their huge bodies, often slew them, and why they were so full of evil devices to set snares to kill them. The old njokoos, who had seen nearly one hundred rainy seasons, remembered the time when they could roam in peace in vast herds over a great part of the land. But now it was not so, and every year the herds became smaller and smaller, so many were killed. Every njokoo missed some friend who had been his or her constant companion. They were all filled with sorrow, which they expressed by trumpetings. These were followed by a long silence. The njokoos were all thinking.