Just as I was in the midst of the grove I suddenly heard a great crash in the direction I was going. Then followed several other crashes coming from other parts. I listened: they were the hippopotami: they had entered the grove by several paths converging toward me.
I kept still. I do believe my hair must have stood up on my head, for I was awfully excited. The hippopotami were coming just where I was.
HUNTING HIPPOPOTAMI.
I cocked my gun, hid myself behind a big tree, and waited. I heard the crash of branches in all directions except one, and finally saw the branches of the trees moving not far from me, and by the dim moonlight piercing through the not very thick foliage, I perceived a monster hippopotamus, the male of the herd, coming sideways so as to pass within a few yards of me. Suddenly he stopped; gave one of his sonorous grunts; and then advanced. What a monster he was! What a huge body! What short legs! At last, just as he had passed me, so that he could not face me without turning his unwieldy body, I fired into his ear, and the monster dropped on the spot with scarcely a struggle. But I wish you had been with me to hear the rush of the others. I thought all the trees were coming down! One in his fright came down in my direction. I thought he was charging me, so I fired, and I heard the bullet strike some part of his body, probably one of his tusks, for it made a great noise; but that was all; he passed on with a rapidity of which I thought these beasts perfectly incapable. I was glad when they were all out of the way.
It had been an exciting hunt and I was satisfied. So I returned to the camp, and the next day we all went to cut up the beast. Some of the married men cut long strips of the hide to make whips, which they use pretty freely on the backs of their wives; but I made them promise not to use these whips except in self-defense.
A DINNER OF HIPPOPOTAMUS.
There was joy in the camp in the evening. We had music, and I enjoyed the broth amazingly; it was really good, and I wish I could say the same of the flesh; but he was an old fellow and the meat was exceedingly tough. I soon gave up the job of trying to eat it.
It did me good to see how my men enjoyed it. They had a dance in the evening.
In the book called “Stories of the Gorilla Country” I have not told how curious is the head of this great, unwieldy creature.