250 



THE BABY HIPPO. 



Avarning : ofT flies the crown of the little kid's 

 head. The bereaved mother rises for an instant, 

 viciously regards the infanticide, who is quietly 

 loading, snorts a parent's curse, and dives as the 

 cap is being adjusted. Presently a bump, a shock, 

 and a heave, and the bows of the barque are 

 high in the air. Bombay, describing a small 

 parabola, lands in frog-position upon the enraged 

 brute's back. My companion steadies himself in 

 the stern ; happily the Kiboko had not struck 

 out with the forearm, nor torn off the gunwale 

 with her mighty jaws : he sends a ball through 

 her sides as, with broad dorsum hunched up and 

 hogged, like an angry cat, she advances for a 

 second bout. Bombay scrambles into the mo- 

 noxyle, and nothing daunted, paddles towards 

 the quarry, which funks and bolts till nothing is 

 visible but a long, waving line of gore. With a 

 harpoon we might have secured it ; now it will 

 feed, with ' speck ' and musky meat, the VVaslienzi 

 or the crocodiles. 



Our most artful dodge was, however, to come. 

 The Baloch have ceased firing, confessing their 

 matchlocks to be no ' good,' but they force the 

 boatmen to obey us, and they take great interest 

 in the sport, as Easterns will when they see work 

 well done. My companion lands with his black 



