246 



THE HUNT. 



directed by Sidi Eomoay, who is great in matters 

 of venerie, occupy tlie centre, and we take up 

 our station in tlie bows. The battery consists of 

 a shot-gun for experiments, a Colt's rifle, and 

 two ' smashers/ each carrying a 4 oz. ball of zinc- 

 hardened lead. The mise en scene is perfect : the 

 bright flush of morning, the cool, clear air, the 

 river, with its broad breast swelling between two 

 rows of tall luxuriant trees, and, protruding from 

 the mirrory surface, the black box-heads, flanked 

 with small pointed ears, and not a little resem- 

 bling the knight in old chessmen. When swim- 

 ming up stream the beasts threw up the hind 

 legs, and plunged with the action of a porpoise. 

 As we approached them the boatmen indulged in 

 loud and ribald vituperations, such as * M'ana 

 Marira,' big belly ! ' Hana 'mkia,' O tailless 

 one ! and ' Limundi,' which was not explained. 

 These insults caused them to raise their crests in 

 angry curiosity, and to expose their arched necks 

 of polished black, shining with the trickling rills, 

 which caught like quicksilver the reflection of 

 the sun. 



My companion, a man of speculative turn, 

 experiments upon the nearest optics with buck- 

 shot and two barrels of grape, for which we had 

 a mould. The eyes, however, are obliquely 



