ney."

"Why?"

"Because if we should free him before he is entirely tame and becomes
attached to us, he would go away at once."

"Oh! He won't go away from me."

"You think that he already is like me," retorted Stas with impatience.

Further conversation was checked by the arrival of Kali, who brought
with him the slain zebra and its colt, which had been partly devoured
by Saba. It was the good fortune of the mastiff that he rushed after
Kali, and was not present at the encounter with the python for he would
have chased after him and, overtaking him, would have perished in his
murderous coils before Stas could come to his aid. For eating the zebra
he received, however, from Nell a tongue-lashing which after all he did
not take too much to heart as he did not even hide his lolling tongue,
with which he came running in from the hunt.

Stas announced in the meantime to Kali that he intended to arrange a
dwelling in the interior of the tree and related to him what had
occurred during the smoking out of the trunk, as well as how the
elephant had handled the snake. The idea of living in the baobab tree,
which would afford a protection not only against the rain but also
against the wild animals, pleased the negro very much; but on the other
hand the conduct of the elephant did not meet his approval.

"The elephant is foolish," he said, "so he threw the nioka (snake) into
the thundering water, but Kali knows that nioka is good; so he will
search for it in the thundering waters, and bake it as Kali is
wise--and is a donkey."

"It is agreed that you are a donkey," Stas answered, "but of course you
will not eat the snake."

"Nioka is good," repeated Kali. And pointing at the slain zebra, he
added:

"Better than that niama."

After which both went into the baobab tree and occupied themselves in
arranging the dwelling. Kali, having found on the river-side a flat
stone the size of a sieve, placed it in the trunk, heaped burning coals
upon it, and afterwards continually added more fuel, watching only that
the decayed wood on the inside did not ignite and cause the
conflagration of the whole tree. He said that he did this in order that
"nothing should bite the great master and the bibi." In fact it
appeared that this was not a useless precaution, for as soon as smoke
filled the interior of the tree and spread even on the outside there
began to creep out of the cracks in the bark a great variety of
creatures; scarabees, b