The bull
was in the greatest fury, and rose to the surface, snorting and
blowing in his impotent rage;
But as the ambatch float was
exceedingly large, and this naturally accompanied his movements,
he tried to escape from his imaginary persecutor, and dived
constantly, only to find his pertinacious attendant close to him
upon regaining the surface. This was not to last long; the
howartis were in earnest, and they at once called their party,
who, with two of the aggageers, Abou Do and Suleiman, were near
at hand; these men arrived with the long ropes that form a
portion of the outfit for hippo hunting.
The whole party now halted on the edge of the river, while two
men swam across with one end of the long rope. Upon gaining the
opposite bank, I observed that a second rope was made fast to the
middle of the main line; thus upon our side we held the ends of
two ropes, while on the opposite side they had only one;
accordingly, the point of junction of the two ropes in the centre
formed an acute angle. The object of this was soon practically
explained. Two men upon our side now each held a rope, and one of
these walked about ten yards before the other. Upon both sides of
the river the people now advanced, dragging the rope on the
surface of the water until they reached the ambatch float that
was swimming to and fro, according to the movements of the
hippopotamus below. By a dexterous jerk of the main line, the
float was now placed between the two ropes, and it was
immediately secured in the acute angle by bringing together the
ends of these ropes on our side.
The men on the opposite bank now dropped their line, and our men
hauled in upon the ambatch float that was held fast between the
ropes. Thus cleverly made sure, we quickly brought a strain upon
the hippo, and, although I have had some experience in handling
big fish, I never knew one pull so lustily as the amphibious
animal that we now alternately coaxed and bullied. He sprang out
of the water, gnashed his huge jaws, snorted with tremendous
rage, and lashed the river into foam; he then dived, and
foolishly approached us beneath the water. We quickly gathered in
the slack line, and took a round turn upon a large rock, within
a few feet of the river. The hippo now rose to the surface, about
ten yards from the hunters, and, jumping half out of the water,
he snapped his great jaws together, endeavouring to catch the
rope, but at the same instant two harpoons were launched into his
side. Disdaining retreat, and maddened with rage, the furious
animal charged from the depths of the river, and, gaining a
footing, he reared his bulky form from the surface, came boldly
upon the sandbank, and attacked the hunters open-mouthed. He
little knew his enemy; they were not the men to fear a pair of
gaping jaws, armed with a deadly array of tusks, but half a dozen
lances were hurled at him, some entering his mouth from a
distance of five or six paces, at the same time several men threw
handfuls of sand into his enormous eyes.
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