172 BEASTS AND MEN 
language—was first tried, but the lady, having not only a 
thick hide but also a thick head, obstinately refused to come 
out. She merely approached the door, and snapped at the 
delicacies offered her, then retired once more into the . 
waggon. This sort of foolery continued for several hours, 
until at last I lost all patience with the brute and ordered two 
of my people, whilst I once more enticed her to the door with 
a handful of food, to belabour her from the rear. Seeing the 
food, the cow once again came to the door, but on being hit 
from behind, instead of coming right out, she turned round in 
a fury, and charged the barrier dividing her from her assail- 
ants with such force that this gave way and fell with a crash, 
burying the two keepers beneath it. The hippopotamus was 
about to follow up her advantage, when I sprang to the 
rescue and gave her a tremendous kick with my right foot. 
The result of this was to turn her attention to myself, and 
with a snort of rage she came at me with arush. I ran—ran- 
as I had never run before—and fled into the stable prepared 
for the hippopotamus, the infuriated beast following with wide- 
open jaws. Springing across the bath, I made my escape 
through the bars, which were very wide apart—but only just 
in time! Outside, I rushed round to the door of the stall and 
quickly closed it—the hippopotamus was secured! I have 
always regretted that there was no photographic—or better, 
cinematographic—camera on the spot to preserve the doubt- 
less highly comical sight of my panic-stricken flight from the 
hippopotamus cow. 
Hippopotami thrive excellently in captivity and have bred 
in many Zoological Gardens, among others in London, 
Amsterdam, Antwerp and St. Petersburg. The act of 
mating takes place in the water, the animals becoming 
sexually mature in the fifth year. It is a pretty sight to see 
the mother playing in the water with her baby, or, when the 
little one is tired, giving it a ride upon her back. As I have 
said, the animals are usually somewhat bad tempered through- 
out their lives and are apt to be irritable, but of course the 
