“A cheerful morning wind ran through the dense thickets of the Senegal River, causing the grass, not yet scorched by the tropical sun, to noisily ripple and the spotted, slender giraffes, going to drink, to shudder timidly. Large golden beetles buzzed, colorful butterflies seemed to be flowers thrown into the air, and hippos mooed contentedly as they plunged into the warm mud of the coastal swamps. The morning rejoicing was in full swing when a poisonous black snake, without knowing why, in a fit of momentary anger, bit a big old baboon, who had long left his pack and was wandering in the forests as a lonely, ferocious vagabond...”