If I had tried, I could not have made a better hiding-place. So I stepped in, making a peep-hole to see through, and lay in wait. The grunting became louder. I could hear them uprooting the ground, and finally four big yellow wild boars were before me. I cocked my gun as the big fellow of the party approached, unaware of his danger, and fired, and down he came. His three companions made a leap of about ten yards--a tremendous leap it was. These wild boars can leap farther than an antelope. This was a _Potamocherus albifrons_, a species which I have described to you in a former volume. [Illustration: ATTACK ON THE WILD BOARS.] There was great joy when I returned to the camp and told the good news. They thought I had killed a monkey. We had part of it for our breakfast, and it was excellent, but not very fat, as this time of the year is not their fat season. One of my Ashira men had at home a small idol, which had the reputation of being an excellent guardian of his vacant house, and to this idol he was to take a piece of smoked boar's flesh. I succeeded in purchasing the idol, a likeness of which I here give you. CHAPTER XXVI. PROPOSE TO START FOR HAUNTED MOUNTAINS.--OLENDA SAYS IT CAN NOT BE DONE.--AT LAST I LEAVE OLENDA VILLAGE.--A TORNADO.--WE ARE LOST.--WE FIGHT A GORILLA.--WE KILL A LEOPARD.--RETURN TO OLENDA. I soon after returned to Olenda's village. One day I said to Olenda, "Olenda, have you ever been to the Nkoumou-Nabouali?" The wrinkled old chief looked at me through his small eyes for some time without saying a word, and then he replied, "Moguizi, no living man has ever been to the top of those mountains." "What kind of people live in those mountains?" "No one lives there," said Olenda, "except a race of people whom you may perhaps see, but, as soon as you approach their abodes, they vanish away, and no one can tell which way they have gone, for no one can see them when they disappear; their villages are made only with branches of trees." I remained silent a little while. Then I said, "Olenda, I want to go there; I want to go to the very top of the Nkoumou-Nabouali--to the very top," I added, pointing out to him the highest blue peak I could see from his village--"to the highest top, so that I may look at all the country round." I thought to myself what a glorious sight it would be, for, at a single glance, I should see hills, and plains, and rivers spread all around. My enthusiasm was very great when thinking of these things. I felt strong--so strong that I thought it would be nothing to go through that belt of immense forest and climb those high mountains.