38 



HIPPOPOTAMUS HUNTERS. 



Chap. I. 



rich and exalted to the poor and lowly. When private 



persons attempted it, we declined. 



Beyond Pita lies the little island 

 Nyamotobsi, where we met a small 

 fugitive tribe of hippopotamus hunt- 

 ers, who had been driven by war 

 from their own island in front. All 

 were busy at work ; some were mak- 

 ing gigantic baskets for grain, the 

 men plaiting from the inside. With 

 the civility so common among them 

 the chief ordered a mat to be spread 

 for us under a shed, and then showed 

 us the weapon with which they kill 

 the hippopotamus ; it is a short iron 

 harpoon inserted in the end of a 

 long pole, but being intended to 

 unship, it is made fast to a strong 

 cord of milola, or hibiscus, bark, 

 which is wound closely round the 

 entire length of the shaft, and se- 

 cured at its opposite end. Two men 

 in a swift canoe steal quietly down 

 on the sleeping animal. The bow- 

 man dashes the harpoon into the 

 unconscious victim, while the quick 

 steersman sweeps the light craft 

 back with his broad paddle; the 

 force of the blow separates the har- 

 poon from its corded handle, which, 

 appearing on the surface, some- 

 times with an inflated bladder attached, guides the hunters 



