She answered, Yes, once in every five years.

Then after many mystic ceremonies he spent a week in the forest at a time of full moon.

One of the Kalubis had told her that on this occasion he had seen the Motombo and the god sitting together under a tree, each with his arm round the other's neck and apparently talking "like brothers." With the exception of certain tales of its almost supernatural cunning, this was all that I could learn about the god of the Pongos which I have sometimes been tempted to believe was really a devil hid in the body of a huge and ancient ape.
No, there was one more thing which I quote because it bears out Babemba's story.

It seems that captives from other tribes were sometimes turned into the forest that the god might amuse itself by killing them.
This, indeed, was the fate to which we ourselves had been doomed in accordance with the hateful Pongo custom.
Certainly, thought I to myself when she had done, I did a good deed in sending that monster to whatever dim region it was destined to inhabit, where I sincerely trust it found all the dead Kalubis and its other victims ready to give it an appropriate welcome.
After crossing the god's garden, we came to the clearing of the Fallen Tree, and found the brute's skin pegged out as we had left it, though shrunken in size.

Only it had evidently been visited by a horde of the forest ants which, fortunately for Hans, had eaten away every particle of flesh, while leaving the hide itself absolutely untouched, I suppose because it was too tough for them.