is his opponent took instant advantage by flinging himself astride
upon his antagonist's body, pinning his arms down by kneeling upon them,
and gripping his throat with both hands in a throttling grasp that soon
reduced his enemy to a condition of utter helplessness. Then, rising
heavily and somewhat unsteadily to his feet, the conqueror glared about
him for a moment, and, seeming to see what he was looking for, stooped
over his insensible foe, seized him by an arm and a leg, and, lifting
him above his head, went staggering across the open space toward one of
the weird-looking trees already mentioned, into the foliage of which he
flung the body. And forthwith, to our unspeakable horror, the long,
sticky, ribbon-like leaves, sensitive as those of a mimosa, seized and
wrapped themselves about the body, until, in less time than it takes to
tell, it was so completely enveloped that nothing of it was to be seen,
while the leaves of the tree--which was only about fourteen feet high--
had formed themselves into a great, horrible, tightly compressed mass,
in which I seemed to detect, for the space of a minute or two, signs of
an internal struggle. Meanwhile, the conqueror, having thus effectually
and terribly disposed of his foe, went reeling and staggering over to
where the female sat impassively upon the boulder, seized her roughly by
the arm, and dragged her, unresisting, into the depths of the wood,
where we soon lost sight of them.

Speechless with horror for the moment, even more at the demoniacal
ferocity displayed by the combatants than at the weird ghastliness of
the manner in which the fight had ended, I signed to Piet, and, wheeling
our horses, we galloped away from the scene of the tragedy, nor drew
rein again until we reached the wagon, which was in the act of being
outspanned. Then, dismounting, I beckoned to 'Mfuni, related what we
had seen, and asked him whether he had ever heard of such creatures as
those men, or monkeys, that Piet and I had beheld fighting. But 'Mfuni
shook his head and replied in the negative; he had never before been
anything like so far north, and his knowledge of the Bandokolo country,
it appeared, was even less than that which I had gained from Mapela.

In the course of the next day's trek we passed close to the scene of the
combat, and, for the satisfaction of my curiosity, I made a point of
carefully examining the tree into which the body of the vanquished had
been thrown. The lea