HUNTING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



353 



herd of Hippopotami in fancied security. The young ones were playing with each other like young 

 puppies, climbing on the backs of their dams, trying to take hold of one another by the jaws, and 

 tumbling over into the water. Mbia, one of the Makotols, waded across to within a dozen yards 

 of the drowsy beasts, and shot the father of the herd, who being very fat soon floated, and was 

 secured at the village below. The men then gorged themselves with meat for two days, and cut 

 large quantities into long narrow strips, which they half dried and half roasted on wooden frames 

 over the fire." 



The harpoon is the weapon usually used by the natives of Africa for catching the Hippopo- 

 tamus. One kind of harpoon consists of a shaft about twelve feet long, at one end of which 

 is a combination of spear and fish-hook, the spear being let into a socket of the shaft, and also 



HUNTING HIPPOPOTAMI WITH THE HARPOON. 



attached to the shaft by means of cords. At the other extremity is a coil of 1'ope, to which is 

 attached a large float, so that when a Hippopotamus is harpooned the float shows the position of the 

 animal. When an animal is struck, it is followed either by men in canoes or on land, who by means 

 of ropes get possession of the line to which the float is attached, which they entwine round a tree, 

 and every time the animal comes up to breathe he is greeted with a shower of spears until finally 

 finished. 



Livingstone in his " African Travels " gives the following interesting account of this instru- 

 ment and its makers. He relates that on the Zambesi River " beyond Pita lies the little island 

 Nyamotobsi, where we met a small fugitive tribe of Hippopotamus hunters, who had been driven by 

 war from their own island in front. With the civility so common among them, the chief ordered 

 a mat to be spread for us under a shed, and then showed us the weapon with which they kill the 

 Hippopotamus. It is a short iron harpoon inserted in the end of a long pole, but being intended 

 to unship, it is made fast to a strong cord of milola, or hibiscus bark, which is wound closely round 

 the entire length of the shaft, and secured at its opposite end. Two men in a swift canoe steal 

 04 



