1811. 
THE SECOND HIPPOPOTAMUS. 
423 
piece of its hide; and in it all the fatter pieces were laid in salt. This 
animal was a full-grown female, and proved to be in good condition. 
It was infested with a very large kind of louse*, which adhered to the 
outside of its ears. The hide on the rump and back, was an inch 
and a half in thickness ; but on the under part of the body, only three 
quarters of an inch : it may be observed that the tusks of the female 
are always shorter and smaller than those of the male. It was killed 
in the back of the head by a single bullet, supposed to be the one 
fired by Berends, who, therefore, came in for a half share of it, ac- 
cording to our agreement. 
A small party of Bushmen had very readily lent Speelman their 
assistance in the cutting it up. The darker color and taller figure of 
one of the men, showed him to be not of the genuine race ; and he 
informed us, that, although his mother was a Bushwoman, his father 
was a Briqua, (or Bachapin) ; but that on their separating, which 
they did by mutual consent, he had followed his mother, and now 
classed himself as a Bushman. Among our number, were two 
women, and two half-grown-boys : the latter were the first I had 
seen of that age. The young lady and her companions, were also 
here ; having arrived by a shorter path, along the water's edge. 
In some places, the willows here bend over the stream, and put 
out roots from their branches, like the celebrated Banyan tree of 
India ; but they were too short to reach the ground. This singu- 
larity is occasioned only by local circumstances, and not by any 
peculiarity in the nature of this tree : these overhanging branches 
remaining under v/ater during the rise of the stream, push out roots 
of two or three feet in length, which afterwards, on the subsiding 
of the flood, are left exposed to the air. Of this curious scene, I 
made a drawing ; and another, also, of a beautiful view on the top 
of the bank, to wliich the appropriate living appendages, the natives 
passing to and fro, with red cloaks and glittering hassagays, gave an 
interesting animation. 
* Or probably a species of Ricinus ; but I mention the genus merely from recol- 
lection. . - ■ 
