The Gorilla Hunters | Page 9

carried strapped to our
shoulders through the day, and laying ourselves down side by side with
our feet to the fire and our heads pillowed on a soft pile of
sweet-scented grass, we addressed ourselves to sleep. But sleep did not
come so soon as we expected. I have often noted with some surprise

and much interest the curious phases of the phenomenon of sleep.
When I have gone to bed excessively fatigued and expecting to fall
asleep almost at once, I have been surprised and annoyed to find that
the longer I wooed the drowsy god the longer he refused to come to me;
and at last, when I have given up the attempt in despair, he has
suddenly laid his gentle hand upon my eyes and carried me into the
land of Nod. Again, when I have been exceedingly anxious to keep
awake, I have been attacked by sleep with such irresistible energy that I
have been utterly unable to keep my eyelids open or my head erect, and
have sat with my eyes blinking like those of an owl in the sunshine, and
my head nodding like that of a Chinese mandarin.
On this our first night in the African bush, at least our first night on a
hunting expedition--we had been many nights in the woods on our
journey to that spot--on this night, I say, Jack and I could by no means
get to sleep for a very long time after we lay down, but continued to
gaze up through the leafy screen overhead at the stars, which seemed to
wink at us, I almost fancied, jocosely. We did not speak to each other,
but purposely kept silence. After a time, however, Jack groaned, and
said softly--
"Ralph, are you asleep?"
"No," said I, yawning.
"I'm quite sure that Peterkin is," added Jack, raising his head and
looking across the fire at the half-recumbent form of our companion.
"Is he?" said Peterkin in a low tone. "Just about as sound as a weasel!"
"Jack," said I.
"Well?"
"I can't sleep a wink. Ye-a-ow! isn't it odd?"
"No more can I. Do you know, Ralph, I've been counting the red
berries in that tree above me for half an hour, in the hope that the

monotony of the thing would send me off; but I was interrupted by a
small monkey who has been sitting up among the branches and making
faces at me for full twenty minutes. There it is yet, I believe. Do you
see it?"
"No; where?"
"Almost above your head."
I gazed upward intently for a few minutes, until I thought I saw the
monkey, but it was very indistinct. Gradually, however, it became more
defined; then to my surprise it turned out to be the head of an elephant!
I was not only amazed but startled at this.
"Get your rifle, Jack!" said I, in a low whisper.
Jack made some sort of reply, but his voice sounded hollow and
indistinct. Then I looked up again, and saw that it was the head of a
hippopotamus, not that of an elephant, which was looking down at me.
Curiously enough, I felt little or no surprise at this, and when in the
course of a few minutes I observed a pair of horns growing out of the
creature's eyes and a bushy tail standing erect on the apex of its head, I
ceased to be astonished at the sight altogether, and regarded it as quite
natural and commonplace. The object afterwards assumed the
appearance of a lion with a crocodile's bail, and a serpent with a
monkey's head, and lastly of a gorilla, without producing in me any
other feeling than that of profound indifference. Gradually the whole
scene vanished, and I became totally oblivious.
This state of happy unconsciousness had scarcely lasted--it seemed to
me--two minutes, when I was awakened by Peterkin laying his hand on
my shoulder and saying--
"Now then, Ralph, it's time to rouse up."
"O Peterkin," said I, in a tone of remonstrance, "how could you be so
unkind as to waken me when I had just got to sleep? Shabby fellow!"

"Just got to sleep, say you? You've been snoring like an apoplectic
alderman for exactly two hours."
"You don't say so!" I exclaimed, getting into a sitting posture.
"Indeed you have. I'm sorry to rouse you, but time's up, and I'm sleepy;
so rub your eyes, man, and try to look a little less like an astonished
owl if you can. I have just replenished both the fires, so you can lean
your back against that palm-tree and take it easy for three-quarters of
an hour or so. After that you'll have to heap on more wood."
I looked at Jack, who was now lying quite unconscious, breathing