THE VALUE OF A HIPPO 



habit of upsetting boats and drowning the passengers, 

 he does an infinite amount of harm amongst the native 

 crops. In a single night he can eat or trample down 

 enough grain to keep a family for half a year. It is 

 not surprising that the natives should hate him. The 

 killing of the local hippo is always the occasion for 

 great rejoicing in the village. Not only is there an 

 immense amount of meat — enough to upset the 

 digestive organs of everybody — but there is also the 

 feeline that a robber has met his deserts. 



The cutting up of a hippo is a thing which can 

 never be forgotten by those who have seen it. The 

 process of skinning is, of course, no light one, the hide 

 being over two inches thick in places. Under this 

 a layer of fat of an average thickness of two and a half 

 inches, and below that a mountain of meat. 



The skin is valuable for making sjamboks and 

 walking-sticks, though the opening-up of Africa has 

 brought these down in price. As recently as twelve 

 years ago hunters south of the Zambezi used to make 

 a clear profit of thirty to forty pounds out of a bull 

 hippo, but that would be impossible to-day. Too many 

 sjamboks are secured on Portuguese territory for the 

 price to be kept up. The fat is very useful. In a 

 country where no other sort of game carries fat it 

 comes as a godsend to the hunter. He would welcome 

 almost any kind of fat, but the hippo fat happens to 

 be extraordinarily good, one of the most valued things 



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