With Flashlight and Rifle -* 



them of their feathers ! As a matter of fact, what he 

 really did was to kill the marabous he found on the 

 corpses of the hippopotamuses he had himself shot. 



On my reporting this at the station the man, who 

 had been going about all over Africa for seven years, 

 without having any kind of credentials on him, was 

 arrested and brought up for trial by order of Capt. 

 Merker, who had just come back from leave. His 

 employers paid the money due for the shooting-taxes. 

 This incident shows how undesirable it is to allow 

 foreigners, well equipped with ammunition but without 

 credentials, to journey in the interior, where there can 

 be no control over their actions. 



In this connection I may remark that the capture of an 

 old marabou in an unimpaired condition is a feat I have 

 had before me for many years. It is an extraordinarily 

 difficult undertaking, very seldom carried out successfully. 



The teeth of the hippopotamus are much harder 

 than ivory, and for a long time were used for the 

 manufacture of false teeth. Science has now found a 

 better means of producing the latter, though it has 

 yet to discover a substitute for ivory in the making 

 of billiard-balls. Old Le Vaillant remarks in his 

 book of travels, published a hundred years ago : "It 

 is not surprising that Europeans, especially Frenchmen, 

 should make an article of commerce out of the 

 teeth of the hippopotamus, for with the help of science 

 they are made to replace our own, and we may see 

 them flashing delightfully in the mouth of a pretty 

 woman." 



268 



