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The Gigantic Hippopotamus

CARCELY, if at all, the dread of every servant and peasant, inferior to the ele- they cost from half-a-dollar to a dollar phant in bulk, this each. In colder climates, even in Syria, massive animal is they become brittle, crack and lose their much lower in sta- elasticity. ture, from the These animals feed chiefly on grass, shortness of its resorting to situations near the banks of limbs. Its body, rivers which supply that food. In dislike an enormous tricts fully inhabited by man, they genbarrel supported erally pass the day in the water, and seek they are exceedingly wary. on four thick pil- their nourishment during the night; but lars, almost touches the ground; the head in localities differently circumstanced, is ponderous; the muzzle is swollen; and they often pass a portion of the day as the great, thick lips, studded with wire- well as the night on dry land. In counlike bristles, entirely conceal the project- tries in which the night-time constitutes ing incisors of the lower jaw, and the the only safe period for leaving the water huge, curved tusks, or canines; the mouth is wide; the nostrils open on the top of In Dargola, a narrow strip of country the swollen muzzle; and the eyes, which lying on both sides the Nile, the harpoor are very small, are situated high on the with which the natives attack the Hippohead; hence, when in the water, the ani- potamus terminates in a flat, oval-shaped mal, by raising merely a small, upper sec- piece of iron, three-fourths of the outer tion of the head above the surface, can rim of which are sharpened to a very fine both breathe and look around-the body edge. To the upper part of this iron one remaining submerged. The ears are small end of a long, stout cord is fastened, and and pointed; the tail is short, and fur- the other is tied to a thick piece of light nished with a few wiry bristles. The toes wood. The hunters attack the animal -four on each foot-are tipped with small either by day or by night, but they prefer hoofs. The hide is coarse, naked, and of the former, as it enables them better to great thickness. escape the assaults of their furious en- This part is made into various articles, emy. One part of the rope, with the shaft as shields, whips and walking-sticks. of the harpoon, the hunter takes in his Whips in Egypt are made of its skin, and right hand; in the left he holds the rest form an important article of trade with of the rope and the piece of wood. He the Sennaar and Dalfour caravans. To now cautiously approaches the animal render the narrow strips pliable, they must when he is asleep during the day on some be rubbed with butter or grease. In island in the river, or he looks for him at Egypt, where they are in general use, and night, when the Hippopotamus is likely to come out of the water to graze in the the huntsmen, in their small canoes, caucorn-fields. tiously approach the floating wood, and, When the huntsman is about seven after fastening a strong rope to it, they paces from the beast, he throws the spear hasten with the other end toward the with all his might, and, if he is a good large boat which contains their commarksman, the iron pierces through the panions. The huntsmen now pull the thick hide, burying itself in the flesh rope, when the animal, irritated by the deeper than the barbed point. The ani- pain, seizes the boat with his teeth, and mal generally plunges into the water; sometimes succeeds in crushing and over-