Hippo

“ Sometimes when a hippo is attacked at short range it will climb out of the water and charge its enemies on land. It is a very unwise movement for the poor creature is then much easier to kill for it is clumsy and cannot turn quickly. The natives plaster its eyes with clay or sand and then they have it at their mercy.
Hippos are wonderfully good swimmers and moreover they are able to walk along the river beds in search of food. When they sleep they float in the water with nothing but their nostrils sticking out. ”

“ The strongholds of the hippos are the great Lakes of Central Africa, and the Zambesi River which forms the northern boundary line of the Transvaal. Dr Livingstone tells in his book how he once saw hundreds of hippos along the banks of Senegal and Niger Rivers.
The hippo is a huge creature weighing many tons. It is stupid and vicious and more or less lazy. Its body is oily, fat and very dense. Its brain, eyes and ears are small but its mouth is enormous. It feeds chiefly on the grasses and weeds growing in the water. The hippo's legs are short but it can run quite fast. ”

“ The hippo, roaring frightfully, pulled one way, Bartlett and the keepers pulled the other, and at last out came the tooth, and Hippo soon got well again.
No animal in this world is made without a purpose, and we always find that the structure of an animal is admirably adapted to its mode of life. I believe that one of the principal duties which the elephant and rhinoceros unconsciously perform, is to cut paths through the dense forests and jungles in which they live. The home of the hippopotamus is among the aquatic forests at the bottoms of large rivers such as the Upper Nile. ”

“ The Hippo is certainly not handsome. He has a huge barrel body submerged in fat mounted on short stumpy legs and a gigantic head with a mouth of such enormous size and capacity as to be positively terrifying. The huge, horse-like nose is covered with stiff bristles, the nostrils flare like fans, the eyes bulge, and the forehead is low and flat, with two foolish looking ears sticking up on either side of it.
The weight of this great beast averages from four thousand to eight thousand pounds. ”

“ He was short and tubby; if he had been any shorter he would have been a human Humpty-Dumpty. He was so obviously enjoying himself and getting the best out of his gambols in the water that my heart went out to him. He was ducking and splashing about, rolling and wallowing in a way that reminded me of a hippopotamus I had once shot at—and missed—in happier if not more spacious days spent on the lower Nile. "The Hippo" I christened him, and then chuckled to myself at the singular appropriateness of the name.
Even his bathing dress seemed designed expressly to add to his rotundity. ”

“ The hunter next goes to the handle and hauls on the rope till he knows that he is right over the beast: when he feels the line suddenly slacken he is prepared to deliver another harpoon the instant that hippo.'s enormous jaws appear with a terrible grunt above the water. The backing by the paddles is again repeated, but hippo. often assaults the canoe, crunches it with his great jaws as easily as a pig would a bunch of asparagus, or shivers it with a kick by his hind foot. ”

“ JUNO TAKES CARE OF THE YOUNG HIPPOPOTAMUS.
So Juno took charge of the young hippo,—she called him hippo for short, and only when he was naughty she called him: "Hip-po-pot-a-mus, aren't you ashamed of yourself?" But he was a great trial. He was awkward and clumsy, and not a bit like her graceful little lion-puppies. ”

“ The hippopotamus or hippo as it is generally called, is another mighty animal that is rapidly being exterminated by man. At one time it was a common sight to see many hippos feeding together on the banks of the Nile as far north as Cairo but now they are never found beyond Khartoum, which if you will look at the atlas you will find is many miles to the south of the Mediterranean Sea. ”

“ The bladders attached to the lines float on the surface and show where the hippo is lying. At last, weakened by its struggles and loss of blood the creature dies. Ropes are attached to the lance lines and the body is hauled ashore by many willing hands. ”

“ I have heard some men give the hippo credit for being vicious, but personally I am of opinion that he will never wilfully harm anyone. It is true they have been known frequently to overturn canoes on a river, but I cannot help thinking that, when this does occur, it is purely an accident, for the hippo is very blind and it is quite conceivable that he may often raise his big head just underneath a canoe without being aware of the latter’s presence. On leaving the pool we soon picked up the tracks of a herd of kob, which had recently passed that way. ”

“ I think the hippo went under water when he found the sneeze was coming, for just as pa got to the tank the water flew into the air like a torpedo had exploded under a battle-ship, and the hippo had sneezed all right and pa and the audience which had followed him were drenched and deafened by the explosion. The hippo had blown the water all out of his tank, and he lay at the bottom, on his side, sneezing little sneezes not louder than the report of a six-pound cannon, and panting for breath. ”

“ There stood the monster hippo with his enormous mouth open, snapping at the kangaroo down in the tank below. The moment the hippo moved down towards the tank the kangaroo sprang into the air and smacked his opponent in the face with his great forefeet. When the hippo got too venturesome, by endeavouring to walk into the tank despite the blows, the kangaroo took a mighty leap upwards and struck his enemy with his hind feet, inflicting terrible scratches with his claws. ”

“ At the same time we wanted to do something, and so it was proposed that we go down to the river—about two miles—and try for a hippopotamus. The hippo is a difficult beast to shoot, as he sticks pretty closely to the water, and it is very unusual to find him on land. The time he spends out of the water is nearly always at night. The natives take advantage of this peculiarity of the beast, and make traps and pitfalls for him ”

“ It seemed an unprofitable business, but, like most natives, they appear quite hopeful. They train their hair into gigantic mops, and dye it red with cow-dung. Many of the men have splendid features, and are extremely handsome. They hunt the hippo with great daring, pursuing the beasts in tiny ambatch canoes, which are often broken up by the infuriated bulls. They plunge a barbed spearhead into the skin, and then paddle ashore with the end of the attached rope; every one lends a hand, and the struggling brute is eventually hauled ashore and despatched. ”

“ The native hunters are wonderfully expert in killing the hippos. The usual method is for two men to go together armed with lances which have a line and bladder float attached. They swim up close to their victim and plunge the lances in. The hippo dives at once and remains under water some minutes. The hunters then get a second pair of lances and if they have luck plunge them in too. The lances have very sharp blades and are weighted at the end so that every movement of the hippo makes the wound deeper. ”

“ Just as the march started, old Fisheye Gleason, a seasoned old retainer who cleaned out cages, fed the animals, and who claimed he was with Noah when he landed his animal collection on Mount Ararat; old Fisheye was climbing down from the top of a cage when he stumbled and fell right on the back of a hippo. Now a hippo isn't classed with the smart animals. He makes up in bulk what he lacks in brains. ”

“ Hippo belonged to a herd consisting of from twenty to thirty hippopotami—mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, relations of all kinds, and several little baby calves. They agreed well together, on the whole.
The only time they grew quarrelsome was when they were selecting new wives, or when one of them had discovered a field of corn or rice, and found that the others wanted to explore it, too. Then some nasty things were said, and some terrible fights took place; for, although a hippopotamus is such a heavy and ungainly creature, he can move swiftly when he is angry. ”

“ FEED A HIPPOPOTAMUS AND HE’LL DO THE REST.
BON, THE BABY HIPPO, FOR WHOM A MAN GAVE HIS LIFE.
[39] Hurrying men “spotted” the cage where a red glow had shown for an instant, then faded—the hippopotamus den, evidently set afire by a spark from the engine. The train stopped. Workmen and performers rushed forward.
The den was dripping with water, evidently carried from the circus water-cart just ahead. A bucket lay beside the cage. But Mike the “hippo nurse” was not to be found. ”

“ The hunter was armed only with a heavy revolver consequently the did not get either of the pair.
The hippo is very vicious and will sometimes charge canoes and upset them, killing the rowers. It is never safe to navigate any river where hippos live. Crocodiles and hippo's live in peace together as one is a flesh eater and the other feeds on vegitables, but sometimes the hippos for some reason or other drive the crocodiles away. ”

“ I do not think that a hippo would ever attempt to follow a man on dry land, though I once read of a case where one of a school, living in a small lake near Mombasa, and having a very bad reputation for viciousness, actually left the water before being shot at and chased the man three hundred yards. As this sporting scribe also stated that he shot buffaloes, lions, giraffes, elands, &c. ”

“ Hippo is very good eating when you cannot get anything better; it has a strong, rather musky flavor which I do not like, and I find that most other white men have tastes similar to mine in this respect. But a Kafir, or any other black-skinned native of Africa, is not at all particular, and you might empty a bottleful of musk over his dinner without interfering with his appetite.
I did not say a word to Harry and Jack until dinner about the hunter I met in the forest. I told them briefly about my elephant-hunt, but we all were too busy for anything else until we got seated at the table ”

“ A day with the howartis—A hippo's gallant fight—Abou Do leaves us—Three yards from a lion—Days of delight—A lion's furious rage—Astounding courage of a horse.
A LITTLE before sunrise I accompanied the howartis, or hippopotamus-hunters, for a day's sport. At length we arrived at a large pool in which were several sand-banks covered with rushes, and many rocky islands. Among these rocks was a herd of hippopotami, consisting of an old bull and several cows. ”

“ At 10 p.m. we decide to take the big iron boat of the steamer and go hunting. The natives are exceedingly skilful and know all the likely places for hippo. They first paddle hard up stream and having arrived at the hunting ground allow the boat to drift down with the current in perfect silence. It is clear moonlight, but it is necessary to cover the fore sight of the rifle with white paper in order to see it clearly. After a time, up rises a great head with a great pant and there is just time for a shot before it sinks again. Hippos frequent shallow water and are indifferent swimmers. ”

“ But the terrible scandal Pa had brought upon the expedition was settled out of court, and Pa was reinstated in good standing in our expedition.
It takes a hippo quite a while to go to sleep after eating a negro, as you can imagine, they are so indigestible, and it was annoying to stand around in the mud and 190wait, but we finally got two specimens of the hippo into the cages, and we killed two more for food for the negroes, who like the flavor of hippo meat, after the hippos have been battered on negroes. ”

“ I have shot them there with finer teeth than anywhere else, and this is the experience of others besides myself.
The food of the hippo consists of coarse grass, reeds, and other plants growing in damp and wet places. In places like Kavirondo, where the natives cultivate the ground to a large extent and where hippos abound, they are a source of great annoyance, as during the night they do much damage to the crops. With the exception of a few caught in pitfalls, these beasts are rarely killed by natives, except by the Wapokomo of the river Tana. ”

“ There is the big flying beetle, purblind and stupid, that comes in the evening and looks the size of a bat; that circles around the table several times, with a noisy boom, tumbles at length into the gravy and then flops into your face. There is the hippo fly, like an enormous horsefly, that thrusts a stiletto into one through his clothing. 105In the upper part of the Gaboon River, where navigation with a launch was dangerous and I stood constantly by the engine, I had a boy, sometimes two boys, standing beside me with fly-brushes to keep them off. ”

“ Crocodiles appear to live peacefully enough together, and they also get along with the hippos without any apparent trouble; but I fancy that many a young hippo finds a resting-place in the stomach of its scaly neighbors.
We got back to camp a little past noon, with good appetites for the luncheon which the cook had provided. After lunch we went in pursuit of giraffes, elands, or anything else that might come in our way; and somehow that way led us in the direction of the camp of our female friends. Nobody suggested riding in that direction, but the impulse seemed to be universal. ”

“ Now letters went to the coast every week. . . . ‘My dear sir,’ he cried, ‘I write from dictation.’ I demanded rivets. There was a way—for an intelligent man. He changed his manner; became very cold, and suddenly began to talk about a hippopotamus; wondered whether sleeping on board the steamer (I stuck to my salvage night and day) I wasn’t disturbed. There was an old hippo that had the bad habit of getting out on the bank and roaming at night over the station grounds. The pilgrims used to turn out in a body and empty every rifle they could lay hands on at him. ”