A FIGHT WITH "HIPPOS" 189 



assistance in canoes; others ran along the bank 

 and added to the fright of my already terrified 

 boys by telling them that the place swarmed 

 with crocodiles. However true that may have 

 been, there was little danger from them now, 

 for the herd of floundering hippos must have 

 scared every crocodile away from that part of 

 the Nile. 



"In a few minutes we were hauled into 

 canoes, and then, after recovering the mail- 

 sacks, we towed our canoes down to the village 

 and emptied them of water. 



"Presently I saw numbers of natives emerg- 

 ing from their huts with long-bladed barbed 

 spears, and learned that they were going in 

 pursuit of the hippo I had wounded. One of 

 them had seen it enter a marshy strip of papy- 

 rus on the opposite side of the river. I tried 

 to persuade them that it would be foolhardy to 

 attempt such a thing without a rifle, and told 

 them that my rifle was at the bottom of the 

 river where the canoes had capsized. They 

 replied that they had often killed hippos with 

 spears and would show me how it was done. 



"About a dozen canoes were launched. Each 

 one was manned by four paddlers, and by a 



