XXXII 
THE HIPPOPOTAMUS 
411 
very small calves sit on the necks of the cows with 
their “ little saucy looking heads cocking up between 
the old one’s ears ; as they become older they sit on the 
withers ’’(see p. 55). 
It is interesting to watch these huge animals at play, 
splashing about the shallows and opening their huge 
cavern-like mouths as if anxious to take in air by the 
mouthful. Powell-Cotton watched a school of eleven 
hippopotamuses at play in Lake Tsana; among them 
were two calves gambolling and trying to scramble on 
the old one’s back; when they succeeded she would 
quietly roll over and send them plump back again into 
the water. There is something very human in this 
kind of motherly fun. 
In the rivers and lakes of Eastern Ethiopia the 
hippopotamus will defy extinction until this equatorial 
region is civilised and the sudd obstructions in the 
affluents of the White Nile are abolished : until then 
its ugliness and corpulence will excite wonder in many 
future generations of men, black and white. 
A thorn in the foot. This is seen 
daily as a “living statue” in 
Eastern Ethiopia. 
