ch. ix] HIPPOPOTAMUS 209 
of the water in a shallow eating the water-lilies. They 
seemed to spend the earlier part of the day sleeping or 
resting in the papyrus or near its edge ; toward evening 
they splashed and waded among the water-lilies, tearing 
them up with their huge jaws; and during the night 
they came ashore to feed on the grass and land plants. 
In consequence those killed during the day, until the 
late afternoon, had their stomachs filled, not with water 
plants, but with grasses which they must have obtained 
in their night journeys on dry land. At night I heard 
the bulls bellowing and roaring. They fight savagely 
among themselves, and where they are not molested, and 
the natives are timid, they not only do great damage to 
the gardens and crops, trampling them down and shovel¬ 
ling basketfuls into their huge mouths, but also become 
dangerous to human beings, attacking boats or canoes in 
a spirit of wanton and ferocious mischief. At this place, 
a few weeks before our arrival, a young bull, badly 
scarred, and evidently having been roughly handled by 
a bigger bull, came ashore in the daytime and actually 
attacked the cattle, and was promptly shot in conse¬ 
quence. They are astonishingly quick in their move¬ 
ments for such shapeless-looking, short-legged things. 
Of course, they cannot swim in deep water with any¬ 
thing like the speed of the real swimming mammals, nor 
move on shore with the agility and speed of the true 
denizens of the land; nevertheless, by sheer muscular 
power, and in spite of their shape, they move at an un¬ 
expected rate of speed both on dry land and in deep 
water ; and in shallow water, their true home, they 
gallop very fast on the bottom, under water. Ordinarily 
only their heads can be seen, and they must be shot in 
the brain. If they are found in a pool with little cover, 
and if the shots can be taken close by, from firm ground, 
14 
