92 THE ZOOLOGIGAL SOCIETY. 



would come at the keeper's call, and follow close at his heels, 

 like a dog; and at the absence of its favourite attendant — 

 Hamet Saafi Cannana, for his name deserves to be recorded — it 

 became very impatient, rising on its hind legs and pushing at 

 the wooden fence with a force that threatened to break it down. 

 The hippopotamus was a wonderful attraction, and an 

 exceedingly good advertisement for the Gardens. This was 

 recognised by the Council, who said in their Report : 



Independently of the peculiar claims on public attention vvliicli exist in 

 this extraordinary animal, the renown which the possession of him secures 

 to the Society. has been the means of placing the value, usefulness, and 

 beauty of the general collection rightly before the public. 



The Press devoted as much space to Obaysch as it did, later, 

 to Jumbo, on his departure. At least half-a-dozen times before 

 the end of the year the hippopotamus formed a subject for 

 Punch artists ; and one illustration depicted the rush of people 

 to the Gardens. In Household Words for September 28 there 

 appeared an amusing skit, which, on Mrs. Owen's authority,^ 

 may be attributed to " Orion " Home. It represents the older 

 inhabitants resenting the popularity of the newcomer — which 

 the fox disrespectfully calls a "water-pig" — and appealing to 

 the authorities for redress. A meeting was convened, at the 

 Gardens, and the animals made their protests. These all agreed 

 with that of the lion, who expressed his opinion that the ridicu- 

 lous adulation of public levees by the hippopotamus should 

 cease, and a general apology by the Council and the visitors at 

 large be made to all the other animals. 



With Hamet came two other attendants, who were also snake 

 charmers, and the elder, then an old man, had collected reptiles 

 for Geoffrey, in Bonaparte's Egyptian expedition. Broderip, 

 who witnessed their feats on the day that he first saw the 

 hippopotamus (May 26), gives the following account of it in 

 his "Note-book of a Naturalist" (p. 201 sqq.): 



The charmers took up a position at the end of the house, opposite to 

 the lodgings of the great Pythons, of whose size the old Arab had heard 

 with something very like incredulity. The company stood in a semicircle, 

 and at a respectful distance. There was not much difficulty in getting a 



•"Life of Richard Owen," i. 361. The title, however, is wrongly quoted. 

 It was "Zoological Session," not " Zoological Meeting." 



