Suliman Kashef related, with an important air, that he shot quite close to a large hippopotamus several times yesterday evening, without the beast moving, until, at last, it slowly walked into the river. This Nile buffalo was said to be a Scheïtan, and Selim Capitan believed the very same thing. I threw in a hint that Mohammed Ali might have assumed this form, in order to see what good the expedition was doing—whereupon there was altum silentium! Thermometer, 22° 32° to 33°.
15th April.—Between N. and N.W. The nearest shores are low, and even where the forest extends to them, they are but slightly elevated, and the overthrown trees present a melancholy appearance here instead of the cheerful underwood. The old shores of the river are visible right and left through the downs of the forest, and are really high shores, without any deception, for the vessel goes considerably lower during our present return voyage, and no illusion takes place, as is the case with the slight elevation in the extensive plain, which always appears to the eye to be ascending. We navigate on the broad stream as if in the forest, woody islands on the right, the same on the left, but sunt, always sunt, with its melancholy foliage,—my heart longs for beeches and oaks and their shady halls! It is only on the shore where winds and water take effect above and below, that we see trees completely uprooted. The high water has no power towards the interior of the shore, but another evil spirit, the Habùb (storm), throws down and scatters boughs and trees.
The north-west wind is against us; we go therefore over N. easterly to N.E. These windings depend principally on how we sail round the islands. The main direction of the stream is, and remains from the present, N., with slight deviations to E. and W. The shores encompassing the long island-sound, are generally invisible; an accurate map, therefore, could be only drawn up by a longer stay here.
In the afternoon we halt for a moment at the right shore, and near the large island of Aba, and hear from the Hassaniës and people of El Aes that a large hippopotamus had been struck by three harpoons close at hand. We navigate, therefore, to the left, at the island of El Gamùss, which has its name partly from the number of Nile buffaloes taking up their abode in their neighbourhood; and we see, at its head, the mighty snorting beast half out of water; but he soon, however, drew back, and swam into the Nile arm, between the island and the left shore. The sàndal was towed near him, and after the sürtuk had twice upset, yet without confounding the experienced swimmers, and the beast had tried in vain to escape, it occurred to our men, as the hippopotamus was obliged from want of breath to come up constantly to the surface, to fasten the towing-rope to the three harpoon, and thus to drag him ashore like a vessel. Before, however, they got so far, the beast collected his last strength, and shortly before arriving at the shore, sprung up with such force that several of the heroes jumped back. I thought that I should see a national hunt, and the hippopotamus killed with the spear; but the Turks did not wait for him to gain terra firma, but shot at him where he was, half out of water, and certainly, had he landed, he might have trod several men under his feet, and torn them with his respectable tusks.
Nine shots were fired one after the other, Suliman Kashef’s was the last, and it hit the animal behind the ear: the blood spouted up, and the monster fell, slain by man’s art, not by his courage. We had him dragged by the tow-rope of the sàndal to our landing-place, and I then found that the balls had pierced his neck and back, which might well happen, when we consider that the distance was only fifteen paces and that the beast had a fat hide, with no other shield than the yielding rumples, extending crossways over the back. The inside of the holes perforated by the bullets, felt like the body of a fat hog. The monster might be even compared in his clumsy form to a small elephant, and both correspond just as little as the crocodile, to our usual ideas of beauty in animals, which are generally reduced to the standard of the noble horse. The skin of the hippopotamus displays a dirty pink hue, from the back to the belly, and the dark green of the upper part of the body runs into this other colour. The skin, in drying, changes to a dark grey.
The soil of the island, excellent in other respects, is torn up by the inundation, ascending several feet over it; but many trees are lying withered and parched up on the ground. I took a specimen of the seeds of a dwarf acacia, with barbs: I observed also guinea-fowls and monkeys: the last are said to swim.
Sabatier, who compares the shores of the Nile here to those of the Mississippi, only that on the latter the trees are higher, is going to accompany me, in Thibaut’s bark to the Aes, whilst M. Arnaud decides upon preparing to-morrow the skin of the hippopotamus, which he has bought for two hundred and fifty piasters.
16th April.—Thibaut has started without us—asleep, as he afterwards said. We remain under Arnaud’s jurisdiction till the afternoon, then go libàhn against the north wind, and halt late in the evening, at the right shore. Thermometer 24°, 34°, to 35°.
17th April.—The wind is against us in our course; forest, islands, downs, mostly with a gentle ascent and shallows, alternate with my impatience, until at last we reach El Aes in the afternoon.
El Aes, lying on a sandy down, which ascends and descends with intermission, is said to be a new place, and is called after a former sheikh of this name. The present sheikh is denominated Achmet, and the people appear to be a mixed breed. They do not wish to have much acquaintance with the Turks, although they are subject to taxation, which a soldier collects there as Kaimakan. Thermometer, noon, 33°.