Hippopotamus

“ Stung by the sudden and unexpected pang of the wound, the hippopotamus gives a convulsive spring, which shakes the head of the harpoon out of its socket, and leaves it only attached to the shaft by its many-stranded rope. At this period, the animal seldom shows fight, but dashes down the stream at its full speed, only the upper part of its head and back being visible above the surface, and towing the canoe along as if it were a cork. ”

“ Often, when they have brought the hippopotamus to the shore, it charges open-mouthed at its tormentors. Some of them receive it with spears, while others, though unarmed, boldly await its onset, and fling handfuls of sand into its eyes. ”

“ Under these circumstances a huge heavy beast, like the hippopotamus (which means in Greek 'river-horse') , can do great damage, and travellers and explorers have many tales to tell of their narrow escapes.
Nobody had more adventures with these troublesome animals than Sir Samuel Baker, when, thirty years ago, he set out from Khartoum on his journey south. Sometimes the hippopotamus would be seen leaving his grassy bed, where he had been sleeping during the long hot day, his hard skin preserving him from the flies which are the pests of those countries. ”

“ Reason awakes to assure him that he must have come down through that small opening of daylight overhead, and that he is now where a hippopotamus ought to have been. The descent of a hippopotamus pitfall is easy, but to get out again into the upper air is a work of labour. The sides are smooth and treacherous, and the cross reeds, which support the covering, break in the attempt to get out by clutching them. A cry from the depths is unheard by those around, and it is only by repeated and most desperate efforts that the buried alive can regain the upper world. ”

“ We shall therefore only recognise one genus.
The Hippopotamus at present is African in range, and confined to that continent. But quite recently it inhabited Madagascar; and further back still in time the existing African species, H. amphibius, ranged into Europe; there were also Indian forms, which were contemporary with the Stone-age man. The Common Hippopotamus is a great thick-skinned beast with but few hairs. It has four toes on each foot, a complex stomach, but no caecum. The strong incisors continue growing through life, as do the great canines. ”

“ The hippopotamus feeds on grass alone, and, where there is any danger, only at night. Its enormous lips act like a mowing-machine, and form a path of short-cropped grass as it feeds. We never saw it eat aquatic plants or reeds. The tusks seem weapons of both offence and defence. The hippopotamus trap consists of a beam five or six feet long, armed with a spear-head or hard-wood spike, covered with poison, and suspended to a forked pole by a cord, which, coming down to the path, is held by a catch, to be set free when the beast treads on it. Being wary brutes, they are still very numerous. ”

“ But, in the first place, it does not follow that, because the hippopotamus was held sacred in the Papremitic nome, it was found in the {458}Nile as low as that district. In the next place, there is nothing in the words of Herodotus to indicate that he had seen the object of his description. (ii. 71.) On the other hand, the substance of his description tends strongly to the inference that he had not seen the animal. It is difficult to conceive that any eye-witness could have described a hippopotamus as having the hoofs of an ox, with the mane and tail of a horse. ”

“ From a Photograph.
Hippopotamus hunts are also conducted on land. There advantage is taken of the fact that the female hippopotamus makes her young walk in front of her. The reason for this is that the beast, being well protected in the rear by its abnormally thick skin, prefers to have its offspring in front, where it can guard them better against danger. But, in spite of its affection for its children, the mother hippo has no particular desire to meet danger when it comes. ”

“ In regions not much visited by the European hunter and his destructive companion, the firelock, the hippopotamus appears as a comparatively fearless animal, not unfrequently abiding the approach of man, whom he apparently surveys with a curious and searching look, as much as to say, "Why this intrusion upon my native haunts, which I have enjoyed in undisturbed tranquillity from time immemorial?" ”

“ Eighteen luminaries of varying size and splendour, forming a group hard by the hippopotamus, indicated the outline of a gigantic lion couchant, with stiffened tail, its head turned to the right, and facing the Haunch. [***]
* The connection of Birît, the female hippopotamus, with the Haunch is made quite clear in scenes from Philae and Edfû, representing Isis holding back Typhon by a chain, that he might do no hurt to Sâhii-Osiris. Jollois and Devilliers thought that the hippopotamus was the Great Bear. ”

“ The hide of a full-grown hippopotamus is thicker than that of the rhinoceros; otherwise, it very much resembles the latter. Its thickness protects the animal against the poisoned arrows and javelins of the natives. But for this, it would soon become extinct in the rivers of Africa, since, unlike most animals, there is no difficulty in approaching the hippopotamus within bow-shot distance. It can only be killed by the natives after a great deal of trouble combined with ingenuity. ”

“ In consequence of the continual persecution to which it is subjected, the hippopotamus becomes exceedingly wary, and, huge, clumsy, and blundering as it looks, is clever enough to detect either pitfall or drop-trap that have not been contrived with especial care. An old and experienced hippopotamus becomes so wary that he will be suspicious even of a bent twig, and, rather than venture across it, he will leave the path, force for himself a roundabout passage, and return to the path beyond the object that alarmed him. ”

“ The hippopotamus is gregarious, and is usually found in troops of from five or six, to as many as twenty or thirty. It is amusing to watch these animals when congregated; to see them alternately rising and sinking, as if impelled by some invisible agency, in the while snorting most tremendously, and blowing the water in every direction. At others, they will remain perfectly motionless near the surface, with the whole or part of their heads protruding. ”

“ I was now well into the domain of the hippopotamus. I am not exaggerating when I say that the Kasai in places is alive with them. You can shoot one of these monsters from the bridge of the river boats almost as easily as you could pick off a sparrow from the limb of a park tree. I got tired of watching them. The flesh of the hippopotamus is unfit for white consumption, but the natives regard it as a luxury. The white man who kills a hippo is immediately acclaimed a hero. One reason is that with spears the black finds it difficult to get the better of one of these animals. ”

“ If a hippopotamus is killed within fifty miles of [132] Sesheke half of it is always sent to the king, and the breast reserved for the royal table. It is at night-time that the hippopotamus generally goes to its pasturage, in the choice of which it is very particular, sometimes making its way eight or nine miles along the river-bank, and returning at daybreak to its resort in the river or lagoons, where its presence is revealed by its splashes and snorts. ”

“ The Hippopotamus.
very traveler, who has seen the hippopotamus in his native haunts, and who has attempted to give a description of the animal, represents him as exceedingly formidable, when he is irritated, and when he can get a chance to fight his battle in the water. On land, he is unwieldy and awkward; so that, when he is pursued by an enemy, he usually takes to his favorite element. ”

“ The hippopotamus walks tolerably quick when it is pressed, and if it find a level and rather hard soil; but it can never overtake a horse, nor even a light-made man, as are all the Negroes who hunt it for amusement. ”

“ He certainly looks to greater advantage in this country than he does in his own; for here a rose-coloured blush tinges his skin, and there he is too often covered with mud, to wear any other appearance than that of a dirty brown.
The hippopotamus is exclusively a denizen of Africa; and perfectly harmless when unprovoked; except that he sometimes gets into the plantations in the vicinity of his haunts, and crushes and devours a crop of maize, or millet. He would rather avoid fighting or quarreling ”

“ When he dives, he shuts his nose holes to keep out water, as the camel and giraffe shut theirs, to keep out sand.
Like other hoofed animals, the hippopotamus lives in herds and feeds on plants. From two to three dozen live together on the banks and in the beds of the warm rivers of Africa. They are not as bright as elephants, neither are they stupid. Not more than one or two of a herd are ever caught in the same kind of trap. Where hunters are about, the hippopotamus does not snort and blow when he comes up to breathe. Sometimes a herd leaves a place that is much hunted. ”

“ Consequently, with these teeth the hippopotamus can cut through the stems of thick and strong herbage as with shears, and the strength of its jaws is so great that an angered hippopotamus has been known to bite a man completely in two, and to crush a canoe to fragments with a single movement of its enormous jaws. ”

“ With the hippopotamus the case is somewhat different, for the apparently defenceless nature of the river-horse enlists public sympathy on his behalf, while the very absurdity of his appearance disarms ill-natured criticism. The horn of the rhinoceros is its ruin, for the popular esteem will never be extended to a creature that carries about on the tip of his nose such a formidable implement of offence. The hippopotamus, fortunately for itself, is unarmed, so that a certain compassionate regard is not considered out of place. ”

“ If attacked, a hippopotamus fights ferociously A big bull hippopotamus will swim under a boat and tip it over, or bite a big piece out of the side, with his huge bark-cutting teeth. He chases the men in the water and gores them with his tusks. There are terrible "rogue," or tramp hippos, too, as there are among elephants.
A mother hippopotamus is the fiercest of all, if anything threatens her baby. She has only one at a time, and she makes it her chief business to look after him. He isn't born a swimmer, so for a long time he lives mostly on his mother's back. ”

“ Moreover, I have been unable to learn that, in any instance, bones of the hippopotamus have been found in the drift of northern Germany associated with the remains of the mammoth, tichorhine rhinoceros, musk-ox, reindeer, lemming, and other arctic quadrupeds before alluded to; yet, though not proved to have ever made a part of such a fauna, the presence of the fossil hippopotamus north of the fiftieth parallel of latitude naturally tempts us to speculate on the migratory powers and instincts of some of the extinct species of the genus. ”

“ Most people do understand, when a thing becomes obviously plain. The hippopotamus wants grass for supper; the “savage” chief wants hippopotamus. Both set about arranging their plans for their respective ends. The hippopotamus passes close to the forked stick, and touches the cord which sustains it in air like the sword of Damocles. Down comes the beam, driving the spike deep into his back. ”

“ By nature the hippopotamus is rather an inoffensive animal. Occasionally it becomes greatly enraged, as when pursued by hunters in boats, and then may be well considered dangerous. Its voice, which is loud, harsh, and grating, has been likened to the creaking and groaning of a large wooden door upon its rusty hinges. ”

“ The author of the Cynegetica, who addresses his poem to the Emperor Caracalla, describes the hippopotamus under the name of ἵππαγρος, "the wild horse," compounded like ὄναγρος (iii. 251-61.) . In this passage the old error as to the cloven hoofs and the mane is repeated. It is added that the animal will not endure captivity; but if any one is snared by means of ropes, he refuses to eat or drink. That this latter statement is fabulous, is proved by the hippopotamus taken alive to Constantinople, and by the very tame animal now in the Zoological Garden. ”

“ Hippopotamus from Lower Egypt, Cuvier remarks, that the French savans attached to the Expedition to Egypt, who ascended the Nile above Syene, did not meet with one.
In some of the rivers of Liberia, and other parts, perhaps, of Western Africa, a second species of Hippopotamus exists, and is proved to be a very distinct animal.
We have yet to glance at the Hippopotami of a former world. Many species are recognised in the fossil remains of Europe and Asia as formerly existing in England and in France. ”

“ He brought three hundred of them from India to Babylon. At present they are little used as domestic animals, although many are still kept for that purpose in Ceylon and Burma. They are eagerly hunted for their tusks. About ten thousand are said to be killed annually.
Hippopotamus (Hippos amphibius) .—There is only one species of the hippopotamus now living—that of Africa. It is nearly as tall as the rhinoceros—viz., about five feet; but it exceeds twelve feet in length. The eyes and ears are small, its neck short and thick, and its feet clumsy. ”

“ The water was discoloured at the time, and we were not without apprehension that a crocodile might chance to fancy a white man for dinner. Next day one of the men crawled over the black rocks to within ten yards of a sleeping hippopotamus, and shot him through the brain. The weather being warm, the body floated in a few hours, and some of us had our first trial of hippopotamus flesh. It is a cross-grained meat, something between pork and beef,—pretty good food when one is hungry and can get nothing better. ”