234 WILD ANIMALS. 



animals seem to utter different sounds at different seasons ; they 

 now snorted and grunted, or rather groaned, and the sharp 

 rattHng gurgle was less distinct than in the spring. In the sun- 

 light the fine spray emitted from their nostrils gleamed like a ray 

 of light. 



" Now and then, with a frightful roar that resounded far away, 

 the males would leap violently from the water, displaying all the 

 forepart of their huge body; they seemed to be scuffling together; 

 but whether they were quarrelling for a monopoly of the limited 

 space, or whether they had been hit by some of my bullets, I 

 could not determine. Their small pointed ears were remarkably 

 flexible, and were continually moving to and fro as the animals 

 listened to distant sounds or flapped away the setthng insects." 



Dr. Emil Holub ^ writes : " Of all the larger mammalia of South 

 Africa I am disposed to believe that to an unarmed man the 

 hippopotamus is the most dangerous. In its normal state it can 

 never endure the sight of anything to which it is unaccustomed, 

 or which takes it by surprise. Let it come upon a horse, an ox, 

 a porcupine, a log of wood, or even a fluttering garment, suddenly 

 crossing its path, and it will fly upon any of them with relentless 

 fury ; but let such object be withdrawn betimes from view, and the 

 brute in an instant will forget all about it, and go on its way entirely 

 undisturbed. (This peculiarity may perhaps be physiologically 

 accounted for by the sniall weight of the brain as contrasted with 

 the ponderous size of the body.) Although in some cases it may 

 happen that an unprotected man may elude the attacks of a lion, 

 a buffalo, or a leopard, except they have been provoked, he 

 cannot indulge the hope of escaping the violence of a hippo- 

 potamus that has once got him within reach of its power. . . . 

 While I was in Sesteke I heard of a sad casualty that had occurred 

 near the town in the previous year. A Masupia, on his way down 

 the river, saw a hippopotamus asleep on a sandy bank, and believing 

 that he might make it an easy prey, approached it very gently, 

 and thrust his spear right under the shoulder. The barb, how- 

 ever, glinted off its side, inflicting only a trifling wound. In a 

 second, before the man had time to get away, the infuriated 

 ' " Seven Years in South Africa," 1881. 



