ELEPHANT AND HIPPOPOTAMUS 



momentarily blinded one. Every now and again with 

 guttural snort and roar the hippopotamus crashed and 

 bellowed amidst the reaches of the Nile. Far away I 

 could see the hills and every detail of the country towards 

 Nimule, everything stood out boldly in the uncanny 

 beams of light, and to relieve the strain on my eyes I 

 had to tie a handkerchief over them, and sat up amusing 

 myself by playing a mouth-organ, the notes of which 

 were hardly distinguishable amid the incessant crash 

 and roar of the tempest. It only lasted about half an 

 hour, however, and within a few minutes of the last 

 thunder-clap, millions of stars shone out again in the 

 lu-avens as though rain and storm were unknown in the 

 land, but the ground was nothing less than a morass. 



As I had taken care to select a high spot on which 

 to pitch our camp we were much better off than the people 

 in the village at the foot of the slope where miniature rivers 

 were now sweeping through the huts. The porters had 

 fared somewhat badly, their grass huts, or haycocks, 

 leaked terribly as the wind had stripped most of the roof. 

 The one solitary dry residence was that of Salem and 

 Pishi the cook, and to this the more unfortunate fled for 

 shelter ; and as it was only some six feet in diameter, 

 and four high in the centre, it did well to cover eight of 

 them. How they were huddled up ! jabbering away, 

 blankets wrapped round them, all were shivering in the 

 damp cold atmosphere. I turned in again and must have 

 slept soundly for two hours when I felt something cold 

 on my face, and discovered that the rain had percolated 

 through the grass roof and was running down on to the 

 bed in a stream. 



Presently another breeze came up and shook the 

 hut somewhat alarmingly, so I put my guns over the 

 cross pieces under the folding bed, covering them with a 

 piece of sail-cloth, and on top of all this I placed the bath 

 to catch the streams falling from the roof. Then I put 



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