was not certain whether I j could claim the Victory ;
he was gone, but where ? However, while I was
speculating upon the case, I heard a tremendous
rush of water, and I saw five hippopotami tearing
along in full trot through a portion of the pool
that was not deep- enough to cover them above the
shoulder; this was the affair of about half a minute,
as they quickly reached deep water, and disappeared
at about a hundred and fifty yards distance.
The fact of five hippos in retreat after I had
counted six in the onset was conclusive that my
waltzing friend was either dead or disabled; I accordingly
lost no time in following the direction of
the herd. Hardly had I arrived at the spot where
they had disappeared, when first one and then
another head popped up and again sank, until one
more hardy than the rest, ventured to appear within
fifty yards, . and to bellow as before. Once more
the No. 10 crashed through his head, and again
the waltzing and struggling commenced like the
paddling of a steamer:. this time, however, the
stunned hippo in its convulsive efforts came so close
to the shore that I killed it directly in shallow
water, by a forehead shot with the little Fletcher.
I concluded from this result that my first hippo
must also be lying dead in deep water.
The Arabs, having heard the shots fired, had begun
to gather towards the spot, and, upon my men
shouting that a hippo was killed, crowds came running
to the place wifi1 their knives and ropes, while
others returned to their encampment to fetch camels
and .mat bags to convey the flesh. In half an hour
at least three hundred Arabs were on the spot; the
hippo had been hauled to shore by ropes, and, by the
united efforts of the crowd, the heavy carcase had
been rolled to the edge of the water. Here the attack
commenced; no pack of hungry hyaenas could have
been more savage: I gave them permission to take
the flesh, and in an instant a hundred knives wrere
at work : they fought over the spoil like wolves.
No sooner was the carcase flayed, than the struggle
commenced for the meat; the people were a mass
of blood, as some stood thigh-deep in the reeking
intestines wrestling for the fat, while many hacked
at each others hands for coveted portions that were
striven for as a bonne bouclie. I left the savage
crowd in their ferocious enjoyment of flesh and blood,
and I returned to camp for breakfast, my Turk, Hadji
Achmet, carrying some hippopotamus steaks.
That morning my wife and I breakfasted upon
our first hippo, an animal that was destined to be
our general food throughout our journey among the
Abyssinian tributaries of the Nile. After breakfast
we strolled down to the pool to search, for the
hippopotamus No. 1. This we at once found dead,
as it had risen to the surface, and was floating
like the back of a turtle a few inches above the
water. The Arabs had been so intent upon the
division of their spoil that they had not observed
their new prize) accordingly, upon the signal being