THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



243 



ceed one another in the stream-bed like the beads 

 of a chaplet, and the place which he prefers is 

 called by the natives his 'house.' In the presence 

 of man he remains at home, fearing to expose his 

 person while passing over the shallow covering of 

 the sand-ridges which divide the hollows. When 

 undisturbed he may be seen plunging porpoise- 

 like against the stream, basking where the water 

 is warm and not deep, dozing upon the soft miry 

 bank, or sheltering himself under the luxuriant 

 rhizophorae in groups and singly, the heavy box- 

 head resting upon a friend's broad stern. On 

 terra firma he is easily killed by the puny arrow 

 and by the tripping-trap with its spike-drop : in 

 the water he is difficult to shoot, and unless har- 

 pooned he is scarcely to be bagged. Thoroughly 

 startled, he exposes above the surface only his 

 eyes and sloping brow ; after a shot he will re- 

 main below for hours, raising nothing but a 

 nostril to supply himself with air, and slipping 

 down the moment he sights his foe. Receiving 

 the death -wound, he sinks, and, according to the 

 people, he clings to the bottom : he reappears 

 only when blown up by incipient decomposition, 

 and unless scouts are stationed, the body will 

 rarelv be found. The Arabs and Baloch declare 

 that a trifling wound eventually proves fatal to 



