THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
very long periods of time, and are often carried over very rough, hilly 
ground. They make excellent roads for the traveller, being very broad, as 
hippos do not place one foot before the other in walking, but move the 
front and hind feet of each side of the body in two parallel lines. In muddy 
ground a double path is thus formed, with a little ridge in the middle, and 
where the hippo paths have been worn in the hard rock, along the Lower 
Umfuli River, to which I have already alluded, this feature has been exactly 
reproduced. As a rule, hippos live in herds of from half-a-dozen to twenty 
in number, though sometimes many more than the latter figure may be 
seen together. Still, such large congregations are not common. I have 
travelled for about a thousand miles along the course of the Zambesi, and 
for nearly the same distance on the Nile to the south of Khartoum. No- 
where on the latter river did I see more than a small number of hippos 
together, whilst on the Zambesi the only place where I met with these 
animals in really large numbers was just below the Kariba gorge. Every- 
where, however, south of Khartoum, on the Nile, and from the mouth of 
the Zambesi to near its sources in Central Africa, hippos are present, 
although not really numerous, in many places. 
The natives have hunted the hippopotamus from time immemorial, but 
have probably nowhere seriously reduced its numbers, except on such 
comparatively small rivers as those flowing from the watershed of 
Mashonaland to the Zambesi, where whole herds were sometimes killed 
by the co-operation of a large number of men, women and children, who, 
on a herd of hippos having been discovered in a suitable pool, would 
build strong fences across the river above and below it, as well as along 
the tops of the usually steep banks on each side, to keep the poor animals 
from leaving the water. Then the whole tribe would camp round the pool, 
keeping up big fires and beating tom-toms, and slowly starve the hippos 
to death. I have myself seen this process in course of operation, and on the 
occasion in question a herd of at least twenty hippos must have been 
destroyed. 
On the larger rivers of Africa hippos are harpooned, a long line being 
attached to the harpoon, with a float at the end of it to mark the position of 
the animal after he has been struck. Every time he rises to breathe, fresh 
harpoons are fixed in him, until finally he succumbs from loss of blood. 
This is said to be a very exciting form of sport, as the wounded animal 
often attacks and smashes one or more of his adversaries’ canoes. Many 
pitfalls are dug for hippos, and spearheads, heavily weighted, suspended 
26 
