I concluded that these were attendants set there to guide and
welcome us, for after we had passed, they vanished into the chambers.
But this was not all. Set across the little bay of water just above
the canoe that floated there was a wooden platform, eight feet or so
square, on either side of which stood an enormous elephant's tusk,
bigger indeed than any I have seen in all my experience, which tusks
seemed to be black with age. Between the tusks, squatted upon rugs of
some kind of rich fur, was what from its shape and attitude I at first
took to be a huge toad. In truth, it had all the appearance of a very
bloated toad. There was the rough corrugated skin, there the prominent
backbone (for its back was towards us), and there were the thin,
splayed-out legs.
We stared at this strange object for quite a long while, unable to
make it out in that uncertain light, for so long indeed, that I grew
nervous and was about to ask the Kalubi what it might be. As my lips
opened, however, it stirred, and with a slow, groping, circular
movement turned itself towards us very slowly.
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