The Harpoon For Hippopotamus And Crocodile Hunting Is A Piece Of Soft
Steel About Eleven Inches Long, With A Narrow Blade Or Point Of About
Three Quarters Of An Inch In Width And A Single But Powerful Barb.
To
this short and apparently insignificant weapon a strong rope is secured,
about twenty feet in length, at the
Extremity of which is a buoy or
float, as large as a child's head, formed of an extremely light wood
called ambatch (Aanemone mirabilis) that is of about half the specific
gravity of cork. The extreme end of the short harpoon is fixed in the
point of a bamboo about ten feet long, around which the rope is twisted,
while the buoy end is carried in the left hand.
The old Abou Do, being resolved upon work, had divested himself of his
tope or toga before starting, according to the general custom of the
aggageers, who usually wear a simple piece of leather wound round the
loins when hunting; but, I believe in respect for our party, they had
provided themselves with a garment resembling bathing drawers, such as
are worn in France, Germany, and other civilized countries. But the old
Abou Do had resisted any such innovation, and he accordingly appeared
with nothing on but his harpoon; and a more superb old Neptune I never
beheld. He carried this weapon in his hand, as the trident with which
the old sea-god ruled the monsters of the deep; and as the tall Arab
patriarch of threescore years and ten, with his long gray locks flowing
over his brawny shoulders, stepped as lightly as a goat from rock to
rock along the rough margin of the river, I followed him in admiration.
After walking about two miles we noticed a herd of hippopotami in a pool
below a rapid. This was surrounded by rocks, except upon one side, where
the rush of water had thrown up a bank of pebbles and sand. Our old
Neptune did not condescend to bestow the slightest attention when I
pointed out these animals; they were too wide awake; but he immediately
quitted the river's bed, and we followed him quietly behind the fringe
of bushes upon the border, from which we carefully examined the water.
About half a mile below this spot, as we clambered over the intervening
rocks through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, I observed, in a
small pool just below the rapid, the immense head of a hippopotamus
close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to the river, about six
feet above the surface. I pointed out the hippo to old Abou Do, who had
not seen it. At once the gravity of the old Arab disappeared, and the
energy of the hunter was exhibited as he motioned us to remain, while he
ran nimbly behind the thick screen of bushes for about a hundred and
fifty yards below the spot where the hippo was unconsciously basking,
with his ugly head above the surface.
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