THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 115 



Hippopotami are gregarious animals, and almost always live in 

 herds ; but furious fights take place between rival males, whose wide 

 mouths and terrible array of teeth enable them to bite with great 

 power. Some individuals are extremely savage, and will attack any man 

 or cattle they may find swimming in their haunts, and bite through 

 canoes, and even larger craft such as river-steamers. In fact, the 

 ferocity of the Hippopotamus, in addition to its raids on the crops, 

 is a justification for its destruction when it comes into too close 

 contact with humanity, though no excuse for its complete and wasteful 

 extermination. When much hunted, it becomes very wary, and is 

 difficult to shoot, so small a part of the head being exposed when it 

 rises to breathe as to offer but a very small target for the rifle. 



Natives capture it in various ways by pitfalls, by harpoons, by 

 weighted spears suspended in trees in connection with a cord which 

 will be struck by the animal passing underneath, and by the cruel 

 method of keeping herds in isolated pools till they are starved to 

 death. The great value of the Hippopotamus to natives is its flesh, 

 which is considered good even by Europeans, and the abundant 

 supply of fat it gives, fat being always at a premium with the African 

 negro, who has to subsist chiefly on vegetable food and the dry meat 

 of wild game. The layer of fat immediately under the skin is espe- 

 cially prized, being very pure, and when salted is known at the 

 Cape as "Zee-Koe speck," "Zee-Koe," or Lake-Cow, being the Boer 

 name of the animal. The tusks of the Hippopotamus also yield ivory 

 of good quality, and its skin, which is very thick as much as two 

 inches in places makes the sjamboks, or hide whips, about which one 

 hears so much. Walking canes can also be made of the hide; after 

 the long quadrangular strips have been rounded down, they are 

 soaked in oil, and then polished, so as to look rather like amber ; they 

 are quite as stiff as real cane of the same thickness. 



Although the Romans exhibited the Hippopotamus in their shows 

 in the arena, it was not for many centuries after the fall of their 

 empire that the beast was again seen alive in Europe. At last, in 

 1850, the celebrated Obaysch, obtained as a quite young calf on the 



