XV 



HIPPOPOTAMUS 



SwAHiLi : KiBOKO. Arabic : Gerunti 



I AM going to relate a day's experience with 

 hippo and savages in one and the same 

 breath. The scene is on the Nile, just 

 below the Fola Rapids, in the narrowest 

 part of the river, where the great Congo moun- 

 tains seem to try and meet those round Nimule. 

 I shall not stop to describe either the ponderous 

 beast or his habits. All the world knows that by 

 day he lives in the water among reeds, coming 

 up to blow and snort at intervals ; whilst at night 

 he lands to take his meal of grass and make a 

 beastly row, booming about the place like the 

 savages I am implicating in the day's amusement. 

 Well, I shot one. And of course I returned 

 to my tent, like Job, to sleep off my impatience 

 till the carcase should get full enough of gas to 

 rise from the bottom of the river. This usually 

 takes about three or four hours. 



Camp was pitched in one of the beautiful shady 

 acacia eroves, of which there are numbers on the 

 banks of the Nile here, not far from a large village 

 owned by a dear old man called Kuyu. The 



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