144 THE ART OF TllAINING ANIMALS. 



since, and realized for his Arab keeper quite a handsome sum, 

 the Arab bringing him here on speculation and hiring him out 

 to museum and circus managers. Between Hamet, the keeper, 

 and Obaysch, the hippopotamus, considerable affection existed, 

 probably even more on the animal's part than on the man's. 

 Side by side they slept iu Cairo, and during the first week of 

 their A'oyage to Southampton. But as the weather grew warm- 

 er, and Obaysch larger and larger — he was quite young when 

 captured and grew with the rapidity of all members of the 

 swinish race — Hamet had a hammock sluug from the beams im- 

 mediately over the place where he had been accustomed to 

 sleep ; just over, in fact, his side of the bed, his position being 

 raised some two or three feet. Assuring Obaysch, not only by 

 words but by extending one arm over the side so as to touch 

 him, Hamet got into his hammock and fell asleep, when he was 

 suddenly awakened by a jerk and a hoist, only to find himself 

 close by the side of his " compagnon du voyage." Auother 

 experiment at separate sleeping was attended by the same suc- 

 cessful movements on the part of Obaysch, and, till they arrived 

 at Southampton, Hamet desisted from any farther trial, as he 

 avoided iu all ways any u-ritation of the animal. On the voy- 

 age to this country he slept with his huge charge, who. at sea 

 especially, seemed more content, and to feel safer, when his 

 keeper was at his side. 



Another anecdote is related of this huge beast : 

 One morning during the voyage, Hamet, from some cause or 

 other, absented himself from Obaysch a little longer than usual, 

 when he ran through his octave of cries, from the most plaintive 

 to the most violent, and then was profoundly silent. '^ Hamet," 

 says the narrator, '' thought his freedom was achieved, and then, 

 with the air of an emancipated serf, he opened his wicket, and 

 condescended to return to his tyrant — tyrant no longer, as he 

 hoped. Hippo awaited him with a twinkle of liis infant eye — 

 that curious, prominent, versatile eye, which looks everywhere 

 at once — as he floated in the tank, so as to command the inter- 

 ior of his home. Hamet, in his great fidelity, used to keep part 

 of his wardrobe in an angle of the roof, for convenience of mak- 

 ing his toilet without annoying his charge by unnecessary 

 absence. The bundle in which these ghoice vestments were 

 secured had been pushed down by the revengeful infant, rubbed 

 open with his blunt nose during that ominofis silence, and final- 

 ly left in such a state, that neither Hamet, nor auj other being, 

 Mohammedan or Christian, could ever don them again. Hamet 

 is a well-conducted Mussulman, and not given to indulging in 

 profane language, but he addressed Hippo in terms of the 



