732 
HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE. 
palatial sounds of the Hottentot language. At eleven o’clock came 
the same or some other hippopotamus, and visited the posts we occu- 
pied. He did not, however, dare to come up, though we heard him 
rustle the boughs which hung over the surface of the water, as well 
as a little grass and a few low shrubs which grew on the inside of 
the river banks. We were, however, in hopes that this way of living 
would not long suffice animals one of which only requires almost a 
larger portion than a whole team of oxen. Thus far at least is certain, 
that if one should calculate the consumption of provisions made by 
a sea-cow from the size of its fauces, and from that of its body and 
belly, which hangs almost down to the ground, together with the 
quantity of grass which I have observed at different times to have 
been consumed by one of them, in spots whither it has come over- 
night to graze, the amount would appear almost incredible. We 
passed the following night at the same posts, the sea-cows acting 
much as before. 
On the twenty-eighth, after sun-rise, just as we were thinking of 
going home to our waggons, there comes a female hippopotamus, 
with her calf, from some other pit or river,' to take up her quarters in 
that which we were then blockading. While she was waiting at a 
rather steep part of the river’s banks, and looking back after her calf, 
which was lame, and came on but slowly, she received a shot in her 
side, upon which she immediately plunged into the river, but was not 
mortally wounded, for Flip, the farmer’s son, the drowsiest of all 
sublunary beings, who had shot her, and at that instant could hardly 
be awakened by two Hottentots, was still half asleep when he fired 
his piece. And happy was it for him, that the enormous beast did 
not make towards his hiding or rather sleeping place, and send him 
into the other world to sleep for ever. In the mean while, his shot 
was so far of service, that one of my Hottentots ventured to seize the 
calf, and hold it fast by its legs till the rest of the hunting party 
came to his assistance ; upon which the calf was fast bound, and 
with the greatest joy borne to our waggons, though, while they were 
taking it over a shallow near the river, the Hottentots were very 
much alarmed, lest the wounded mother, and the other sea-cows, 
induced by the cries of the calf, should come to its rescue ; the 
creature, as long as it was bound, making a noise a great deal like a 
hog that is going to be killed, or has got fast between two posts. 
The sound, however, proceeding from the hippopotamus calf was 
more shrill and harsh. It shewed likewise a considerable share of 
strength in the attempt it made to get loose, and was quite unman- 
ageable and unwieldy ; the length of it being three and a half feet, 
and the height two feet, though the Hottentots supposed it to be no 
more than a fortnight, or at most three weeks, old. When at last it 
was turned loose, it ceased crying ; and when the Hottentots had 
passed their hands several times over its nose, in order to accustom 
it to their effluvia, it began directly to take to them. While the calf 
was yet alive, adds he, I made a drawing of it, a copy of which may 
be seen in the Swedish Transactions for 1778. After this it was 
killed, dissected, and eaten, in less than three hours’ time. The 
reason of this quick despatch was partly the warmth of the weather, 
