HIPPOPOTAMUS-SHOOTING 251 



dying convulsions, lashing and churning the water with its feet 

 before it finally sinks. When the dead body floats, the head 

 hangs deep under water, and the four feet with part of the light- 

 coloured abdomen show above the surface. My first specimen 

 was a bull, with fair-sized tusks. 



These tusks are good commercial ivory, but, as a rule, out 

 of the twelve ivory tusks the hippo carries, only the four large 

 ones of the lower jaw are considered of sut^cient weight and 

 size to be purchased by ivory traders ; two of these four tusks 

 are curved, the two others lie between the curved ones and are 

 straight. In addition to the twelve ivo-y tusks, the hippo has 

 twenty-four ordinary teeth. 



Hippo-meat is highly prized by every caravan. I gave 

 my caravan therefore a day's rest to avail themselves of this 

 fortunate supply of meat. Caravan porters get only vegetable 

 rations allowed them, in the shape of beans, Indian-corn, rice 

 or native flour. Meat rations are therefore a windfall to them. 

 We had marched for the preceding ten days in daily drenching 

 rains, the rest-day was therefore doubly welcome, and it turned 

 out a lovely day with a blazing hot sun. An air of festivity and 

 feasting spread like magic over the camp, and my first hippo 

 gave a day of rejoicing and happiness to my weary and hungry 

 caravan. The atmosphere was reeking with hippo-meat ; some 

 hung in long strips to dry in the scorching sun, some was placed 

 on gridiron-shaped tressels of greenwood over a slow tire, some 

 was grilling on spits stuck round the camp-fires, and some was 

 broiling in cooking-pots. Neighbouring villagers came and 

 visited us, and a brisk market was soon in full swing all over 

 the camp. The skull of this hippo is now in my collection in 

 England ; I took the trouble to send it home, but to get it 

 properly bleached in London cost alone £2. 



My second hippo was a female ; I shot it in the Victoria 

 Nile at Fajao, where the river forms the northern boundary of 

 the Uganda Protectorate. I was not very keen to go on the 

 river which, here and there, is half a mile broad. It teems with 

 crocodiles. The current, too, is very swift, and a native dug-out 

 is not the most reassuring canoe to venture in. The Soudanese 

 garrison, however, begged me to shoot one of the hippos in 

 order to put a stop to the havoc caused to the fields. When 

 I consented to try, they brought me the largest dug-out, named 

 by them " Kabarega," because it was the royal canoe of King 



