CH. IX] HIPPOPOTAMUS 209 



of the water in a shallow eating the water-lilies. They 

 seemed to spend the earlier part of the day sleeping or 

 resting in the papyrus or near its edge ; toward evening 

 they splashed and waded among the water-lilies, tearing 

 them up with their huge jaws ; and during the night 

 they came ashore to feed on the grass and land plants. 

 In consequence those killed during the day, until the 

 late afternoon, had their stomachs filled, not with water 

 plants, but with grasses which they must hav^e obtained 

 in their niglit journeys on dry land. At night I heard 

 the bulls bellowing and roaring. They fight savagely 

 among themselves, and where they are not molested, and 

 tiie natives are timid, they not only do great damage to 

 the gardens and crops, trampling them down and shovel- 

 ling basketfuls into their huge mouths, but also become 

 dangerous to human beings, attacking boats or canoes in 

 a spirit of wanton and ferocious mischief At this place, 

 a few weeks before our arrival, a young bull, badly 

 scarred, and evidently having been roughly handled by 

 a bigger bull, came ashore in the daytime and actually 

 attacked the cattle, and was promptly shot in conse- 

 quence. They are astonishingly quick in their move- 

 ments for such shapeless-looking, short-legged things. 

 Of course, they cannot swim in deep water with any- 

 thing like the speed of the real swimming manniials, nor 

 move on shore with the agility and speed of the true 

 denizens of the land ; nevertheless, by sheer muscular 

 power, and in spite of their shape, they move at an un- 

 expected rate of speed both on dry land and in deep 

 water ; and in shallow water, their true home, they 

 gallop very fast on the bottom, under water. Ordinarily 

 only their heads can be seen, and they must be shot in 

 the brain. If they are found in a pool with little cover, 

 and if the shots can be taken close by, from firm ground, 



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