FIRST JOURNEY IN A CANOE 41 
pairs one behind the other ; these sang about the desti- 
nation to which we were bound and about who was on 
board, weaving in plaintive remarks about having to 
begin work so early and the hard day’s work they had 
in front of them ! Ten to twelve hours was the time 
usually allowed for the thirty to thirty-five miles 
upstream to Samkita, but our boat was so heavily 
laden that it was necessary to allow somewhat longer. 
As we swung out from the side channel into the 
river, day broke, and enabled us to see along the huge 
sandbank some 350 yards ahead some dark lines moving 
about in the water. The rowers’ song stopped instantly, 
as if at a word of command. The dark lines were the 
backs of hippopotami, which were enjoying their 
morning bath after their regular grazing time on land. 
The natives are much afraid of them and always give 
them a wide berth, for their temper is very uncertain, 
and they have destroyed many a canoe. 
There was once a missionary stationed in Lambarene 
who used to make merry over the timidity of his rowers, 
and challenge them to go nearer to the great animals. 
One day, just as he was on the point of bursting into 
laughter, the canoe was suddenly shot up into the air 
by a hippopotamus which rose from its dive imme- 
diately beneath it, and he and the crew only saved 
themselves with difficulty. All his baggage w'as lost. 
He afterwards had a square patch, with the hole that 
the creature had made, sawn out of the bottom of the 
canoe, that he might keep it as a souvenir. This hap- 
pened some years ago, but the story is told to any white 
man who asks his crew to row nearer to a hippopotamus. 
In the main stream the natives always keep close 
to the bank where the current is not so strong : there 
