The Pig and Hippopotamus 



323 



DENTAL OPERATIONS ON A HIPPOPOTAMUS NO. II. 



This shows the process of filing one of the lower tusks. 



pleasantest thing to sit on in deep 



water with crocodiles about, especially 



in a wind, as it is very much like 



sitting on a floating barrel, and unless 



the balance is exactly maintained one 



is bound to roll off. 



Although it is often necessary 



for an African traveller to shoot one 



or more of them in order to obtain 



a supply of meat for his native 



followers, there is not much sport 



attached to the killing of these animals. 



The modern small-bore rifles, with 



their low trajectory and great pene- 

 tration, render their destruction very 



easy when they are encountered in 



small lakes or narrow rivers, though 



in larger sheets of water, where they 



must be approached and shot from 



rickety canoes, it is by no means a 



simple matter to kill hippopotamuses, 



especially after they have grown shy 



and wary through persecution. As 



these animals are almost invariably 



killed by Europeans in the daytime, 



and are therefore encountered in the 



water, they are usually shot through the brain as they raise their heads above the surface to 



breathe. By the natives hippopotamuses are killed in various ways. They are sometimes 



attacked first with harpoons, to which long lines are attached, with a float at the end to mark 



the position of the wounded animal, and then followed up in canoes and finally speared to 



death. Sometimes they are caught in huge 

 pitfalls, or killed by the fall of a spear-head 

 fixed in a heavy block of wood, which is re- 

 leased from its position when a line, attached 

 to the weight and then pegged across a 

 hippopotamus's path a few inches above the 



,/' } '-^^^^^ If "^H. f7 "''' r - i* 1 ' 7 -'^' ground, is suddenly pulled by the feet of 



-^ K i*'* ** '"'' * ''" one of these animals striking against it. A 



friend of mine once had a horse killed under 

 him by a similar trap set for buffaloes. His 

 horse's feet struck the line attached to the 

 heavily weighted spear-head, and down it 

 came, just missing his head and entering his 

 horse's back close behind the saddle. Where 

 the natives have guns mostly old muzzle- 

 loading weapons of large bore they often 

 shoot hippopotamuses at close quarters when 

 they are feeding at night. The most destruc- 

 tive native method, however, of killing these 

 monsters with which I am acquainted is one 



DENTAL OPERATIONS ON A HIPPOPOTAMUS NO. in. which used to be practised by the natives 



sawing off one of the lower tusks. of Northern Mashonaland namely, fencing in 



