222 AFRICA SPEAKS 



from the N jemps, when I tried to aireinge with them 

 to form a hmnan barrier between a herd and their 

 aquatic home. Finding to my dismay that I could 

 not photograph them in the lake, and it, of course, 

 being impossible to film them at night, I planned on 

 holding a herd ashore until daylight. When I ex- 

 plained my idea to the N'jemps they went into spasms 

 of laughter; then told me that all the warriors in the 

 valley would not be enough to prevent one hippo from 

 getting to the lake. It seems they had tried this in 

 the past — their object being to obtain fat meat. 

 They went through a pantomime showing how the 

 hippo had charged through the Hue of men and trampled 

 some of them into the ground. We got a great laugh 

 out of their description of the encounter, especially 

 where they demonstrated how it was necessary to dig 

 some of the warriors out of the mud. 



After our friend had noisily splashed his way far 

 into the lake, we returned to our truck and started 

 campwards. We had only gone a short distance when 

 we almost bumped into a cow hippopotamus that was 

 grazing on our private roadway. It was now very 

 dark and she was feeding several hundred yards from 

 the lake shore. Getting sight of what looked like 

 twin moons hanging halfway between heaven and 

 earth, we had speeded forward to investigate, find- 

 ing this corpulent lady waiting to see what sort of a 

 creature was roaring toward her. Upon discovering 

 that humans had something to do with this apparition, 

 Mrs. Hippo made for home posthaste, with us in hot 

 pursuit. I beheve this to be the only instance on 

 record of a hippo being chased by a motor truck. 

 There was no intention on our part to harm her, but 



