We now left the jungle, and found our horses waiting for us in
the bed of the river by the water side, and we rode towards our
camp well satisfied with the day's work.
Upon entering an open
plain of low withered grass we perceived a boar, who upon our
approach showed no signs of fear, but insolently erected his tail
and scrutinised our party. Florian dismounted and fired a shot,
which passed through his flank, and sent the boar flying off at
full speed. Abou Do and I gave chase on horseback, and after a
run of a few hundred yards we overtook the boar, which turned
resolutely to bay.
In a short time the whole party arrived, and, as Florian had
wounded the animal, his servant Richarn considered that he should
give the coup de grace; but upon his advancing with his drawn
knife, the boar charged desperately, and inflicted a serious
wound across the palm of his hand, which was completely divided
to the bone by a gash with the sharp tusk. Abou Do immediately
rode to the rescue, and with a blow of his sword divided the
spine behind the shoulder, and nearly cut the boar in half. By
this accident Richarn was disabled for some days.
Upon our arrival at the camp, there were great rejoicings among
our people at the result of the day's sport. Old Moosa, the half
fortune-teller, half priest, of the Tokrooris, had in our absence
employed himself in foretelling the number of elephants we should
kill. His method of conjuring was rather perplexing, and,
although a mystery beyond my understanding, it might be simple to
an English spiritualist or spirit-rapper; he had nevertheless
satisfied both himself and others, therefore the party had been
anxiously waiting our return to hear the result. Of course, old
Moosa was wrong, and of course he had a loop-hole for escape, and
thereby preserved his reputation. The aggageers expected to find
our wounded elephants on the following morning, if dead, by the
flights of vultures. That night the lions again serenaded us with
constant roaring, as they had still some bones to gnaw of the
buffalo's remains.
At daybreak the next morning, the aggageers in high glee mounted
their horses, and with a long retinue of camels, and men provided
with axes and knives, together with large gum sacks to contain
the flesh, they quitted the camp to cut up the numerous
elephants. As I had no taste for this disgusting work, I took two
of my Tokrooris, Hadji Ali and Hassan, and, accompanied by old
Abou Do, the father of the sheik, with his harpoon, we started
along the margin of the river in quest of hippopotami.
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 (Anemone
mirabilis), that is about half the specific gravity of cork.
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