SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT 117 



In the beginning of the dry season, or let us say in No- 

 vember or December, young ones are born, and are then some- 

 times caught by the native women while fishing. The young 

 ones go with their mother up to about the second or third 

 year. Both the immature animals now in the Zoological So- 

 ciety's Park in New York were still with their mothers. The 

 young ones always go in front of the mother, like the young 

 elephants, rhinos and common Hippo. As with every other 

 species of pachyderm, only one young is born at a birth. 



When I had first caught the little cow, "Saucy," she used 

 to cry piteously for her mother at night. The noise was not 

 unlike the shout of gladness a chimpanzee gives when he greets 

 his keeper. On the other hand, however, it sometimes re- 

 sembles the piteous bellowing of a calf. 



Strange as it may seem, the Pygmy Hippo is very much 

 feared by the natives. King Tawe Dadwe, the Paramount 

 chief of the Golah tribe, told me that in several cases native 

 hunters had been badly mauled and sometimes even killed by 

 a wounded Mwe. 



I consider the mental capacity of this species much 

 higher than that of its big cousin. When I had caught the 

 first animal, the big bull, near Tindoa Island, I at once com- 

 menced to tame him. The first few days he used to rush at me, 

 roaring like an angry lion. I faced him with a big stick in my 

 left hand, and a useful hunting crop with a long lash in my 

 right. After he had received two or three good dressings down 

 he began to get sensible, and within a week listened to my 

 voice. After about a fortnight had passed, I could go in the 

 kraal, sit down on a chair and feed him green food out of my 

 lap. 



With the exception of the Indian elephant, I believe that 

 my Pygmy Hippos are the first cases on record wherein fully- 

 grown, well-aged pachyderms have been captured wild and per- 

 fectly tamed. 



In the kraals where I kept the Hippos in Macca, I had to 

 have the primitive bathing arrangements for the animals 

 cleaned and emptied by the boys. For this purpose from 20 

 to 30 men would form a chain and pass buckets from hand 

 to hand. After a time the men used to sit right alongside 

 the animals, and they never made the slightest attempt to at- 

 tack any of the men. The natives of Liberia now consider 



