The Pig and Hippopotamus 



323 



pleasaiiteft thing to sit on in deep 

 water witli crocodiles about, esjieciallv 

 ill a wind, as it is very much like 

 sitting on a floating barrel, and unless 

 the balance is exactly maintained one 

 is bound to roll off. 



Although it is often necessary 

 for an African traveller to shoot one 

 or more of them in order to obtain 

 a supi'ily of meat f.jr his native 

 followers, there is not much s];>ort 

 attached to the killing of these animals. 

 The modem small-bore rifles, wiih 

 their low trajectory and great jiene- 

 tration. render their destruction verv 

 easy when they are encountered in 

 small lakes or narrow rivers, though 

 in larger sheets of water, where thev 

 must be apjjroached and shot from 

 rickety canoes, it is by no means a 

 simple matter to kill hijijiojtotamuses. 

 esjiecially after they have grown shv 

 and wary through persecution. As 

 these animals are almost invariablv 

 killed by Eurojieans in the davtime. 

 and are therefore encountered in the 

 water, they are usually shot through the 1: 

 breathe. By the natives hijfjiojjotamuses 

 attacked first with harjioons. to which long 

 the j'C'sition of the wounded aninial. and 



DESTAl OPEEii: ;-- 



A HIPPvI-'jTaJ 



"irain 



are 



lines 



then 



ijPEEATIOSi 'l-y A MITTOP'jTAMVi — ^yij. II 

 Sa^wizu: off ant of t1i£ lowei msts. 



as they raise thefr heads above the snrfex:-e to 

 kill ed in various ways. They are s<3metime5 

 are attached, with a float at the end to mark 

 foll'jwed Tiji in canoes and finally sj-eared to 

 leath. Sometimes they are caught in huge 

 " itialls. or killed by the fall of a s3:>eaT-h€ad 

 -sed in a heav-y block of wc.r.i which is re- 

 leased from its position when a line, attached 

 :ci the weight and then pegged across a 

 iiipj>oj»otannis"s jiath a few inches above the 

 ground, is suddenly jiulled by the feet of 

 one of these animals striking against it. A 

 friend of mine once had a horse kill ed under 

 Lim bv a similar trap set for buffaloes. His 

 Lcirse's feet struck the line attached to the 

 Leavilv weighted spe.ar-head- and down it 

 _-ame- just missing his head and entering his 

 horse's back close behind the saddle. Where 

 :he natives have guns — mostly old mnzzle- 

 ''-la dJTUT weapons of large bore — ^they often 

 -hoot hijipopotamuses at close quart ers when 

 thev are feeding at night. The m<3St destruc- 

 tive native method, however, of killing these 

 monsters with which 1 am acquainted is one 

 which used to be jiractised by the natives 

 of Xorthem Mashonaland — namely, fencing in 



