ii8 SERVICE AND SPORT IN THE SUDAN 



dug-out canoe. They were hippo-hunting, but would 

 not take on the school of them opposite the station, 

 much as I wanted to take part in such a hunt. Their 

 procedure is this. They allow their canoe (which 

 is really a hollowed-out log) to float into a school of 

 hippos, and then stab the first one they can reach. 

 The head of the harpoon comes away from the 

 haft, but has a rope twenty feet long, with a piece 

 of ambatch (12 by 18 inches) at the end, fastened to 

 it. This float betrays the wounded animal, who is 

 followed and speared till he dies. 



The ambatch is also, I may say, chiefly used to 

 make rafts, which one sees everywhere on and along 

 the river, often being carried on the head of the 

 owner. In a day or so I was visited by the chief 

 inspector of the province. He had been a prede- 

 cessor of mine at Renk, so knew much about the 

 place, and was able to tell me a good deal about 

 Dinka customs and about the Selim Baggara. The 

 latter hunt the buffalo down with spears on horses. 

 A very sporting way. 



He brought with him an American galvanised iron 

 canoe, which I borrowed in order to attack the school 

 of hippos I have already mentioned. None appeared 

 however, and on my return I was spurting along, 

 when suddenly the end of the canoe shot into the 

 air, and I was almost precipitated into the water. I 

 seized my rifle and fired at a crocodile's head which 

 appeared some ten yards off. I then rowed in, and 

 found on the bottom of the canoe a couple of deep 

 dents, eighteen inches or so apart, which tends to 



