HUNTÎ>!G THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 
70 
water, as it requires for its existence to be near meadows and 
cultivated lands. It has been observed to walk much faster m ^ 
the water than on land, as the former supports it, and assists the 
progress of its heavy body; nevertheless, it cannot stay in the 
fluid for a length of time, or as long as it can remain on land. 
The time which it has been ascertained to keep under water, 
is about half or three quarters of an hour ; after which it is oblig- 
ed to come to land for the purpose of free respiration. 
It sleeps ashore amongst the rushes and thickets with which the 
banks of the river are covered; and in such parts thè females 
drop their young, and give them suck. As soon as they see any 
object or hear the least noise, they throw themselves into the wa- 
ter, and the young ones follow the dam. The female generally 
bears four at a time, and breeds once a year ; so that the number 
of these animals in the Bissagos and the neighbouring rivers, is 
not astonishiniï. 
The hippopotamus feeds both on fish and on such land animals 
as it can take by surprise; because the weight of its body does 
not enable it to run them down. It has been asserted that it eats 
human flesh ; but all the accounts which I have received, tend to 
refute this opinion. Besides animals and fish, we know that it 
eats the grass of the fields, and particularly rice, millet, peasj 
melons, and other vegetables, as its voracity is not easily satiated. 
The Negroes keep it away from their grounds by the means of 
noises and fires : for it makes more devastation with its feet in a 
piece of cultivated ground than by what it eats ; and if it take a 
fancy to sleep in such a spot, the harvest is thereby entirely de- 
stroyed. 
It is while the animal thus reposes that the natives most easily 
destroy it by approaching in a gentle manner; and it betrays it- 
self by its loud snoring. The Negroes take a pleasure in attack- 
ing it, on account of their agility ; but they take care not to hunt 
it, except it be at a distance from a river to which they can pre- 
vent its return ; but if it be wounded and cannot reach the water, 
which it searches for with more eagerness than it defends itself 
against the hunters, it becomes furious, and then it would be im- 
prudent to approach it. It is very tenacious of life, and never 
yields it without much struggle. The hunters endeavour to break 
its legvS with musket-balls; and if they once cause it to fall, they 
kill it with ease. If, however, on such an occasion, it succeed 
in gaining a river, it plunges headlong in ; and after remaining for 
an instant at the bottom, it appears again at the surface, pricks 
up its ears, and looks about in every direction, as if in search of 
those who had forced it to quit the pasture; it then neighs, and 
j^uflges again to the bottom, which it reaches, whatever may be 
