No Doubt They Had Been Disturbed From The Mountain By The
Fire, And Had Mistaken Their Way In The Country So Recently
Changed From High Grass To Black Ashes.
In this locality I
considered it advisable to keep a vigilant watch during the
night, and the Arabs were told off for that purpose.
A little before sunrise I accompanied the howartis, or
hippopotamus hunters, for a day's sport. There were numbers of
hippos in this part of the river, and we were not long before we
found a herd. The hunters failed in several attempts to harpoon
them, but they succeeded in stalking a crocodile after a most
peculiar fashion. This large beast was lying upon a sandbank on
the opposite margin of the river, close to a bed of rushes.
The howartis, having studied the wind, ascended for about a
quarter of a mile, and then swam across the river, harpoon in
hand. The two men reached the opposite bank, beneath which they
alternately waded or swam down the stream towards the spot upon
which the crocodile was lying. Thus advancing under cover of the
steep bank, or floating with the stream in deep places, and
crawling like crocodiles across the shallows, the two hunters at
length arrived at the bank of rushes, on the other side of which
the monster was basking asleep upon the sand. They were now about
waist-deep, and they kept close to the rushes with their harpoons
raised, ready to cast the moment they should pass the rush bed
and come in view of the crocodile.
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