78 ^THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 



conviction, within the wide limits of the diet of 

 his special predilection he displays a considerable 

 catholicity of taste. In surroundings far removed 

 from human habitation, his inordinate appetite 

 gluts itself upon grasses, sedges, and the young 

 shoots of reeds ; but woe betide the sugar plan- 

 tation, the native maize garden or millet field, 

 whither his errant steps may lead him — it would 

 have been better that it had been stricken simul- 

 taneously by several converging tempests. In 

 the night, during the dry weather, his wanderings 

 do not usually lead him far from the river or lake 

 in which his days are passed ; but in the rainy 

 season, when much of the low-lying country is at 

 times submerged, he will wander far away from 

 his natural haunts, to the no small alarm of 

 individuals he may meet on the path, and to the 

 serious detriment of areas under cultivation. In 

 this way sometimes these animals may be found 

 in waters far from their usual place of resort ; but 

 this is usually only because of their dislike to travel- 

 ling by day on terra fir ma. They would thus 

 infinitely prefer to seek a day's lodging or im- 

 mersion in unknown or unaccustomed pools, and 

 there await the shadow of the following nightfall, 

 to returning overland late in the morning in cir- 

 cumstances which might conceivably give occa- 

 sion for explanations of an embarrassing charac- 

 ter. Be this as it may, the hippopotamus is a 

 night bird, and all the sins and depredations which 

 have been laid to his charge have almost in- 

 variably been perpetrated under cover of the 

 darkness. 



