198 SAVAGE SUDAN 



opposite, and these lingerers, preferring a short-cut, 

 reached the river by taking clean "headers" off the 

 5-foot bank and a mighty splash they made! 



Twice we sojourned for a few days at a spot we called 

 Hippo-basin, by reason of a herd of these animals which 

 shared with us a broad backwater full of shallows and 

 sand-banks whereon they loved to lie basking, careless of 

 our frequent passing to and fro. Here, the shelving shore 

 being firm, the hippos were not restricted to a single 

 carefully prepared causeway through the fringing papyrus 

 swamp ; they could go ashore wherever they chose, but 

 nevertheless used several landing-places on either bank. 



SHILLUK HARPOON FOR HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



Each of these was distinctly recognisable, and week by 

 week a hippo or two fell a victim to the harpoons of 

 Shilluks on north, Nuers on south bank. These savage 

 hunters lie concealed at dusk close alongside the tracks 

 leading inland from these various exits, and as the huge 

 beast waddles past within arm's length, drive a barbed 

 harpoon deep into his side. An old and crusty bull full 

 oft makes short work of his hand-to-hand assailant ; but 

 usually the stricken beast retreats to the water, dragging 

 after him the attached rope with its tell-tale float of 

 ambatch faggots. The annexed sketch illustrates better 

 than words this apparatus; but the system, after all, is 

 exactly as described by Baker fifty years ago. Wherever 

 he goes, his sub-aquatic course is betrayed by the floating 

 ambatch, and the luckless hippo eventually succumbs to 

 the spears of scores of converging pursuers not always 



