Both Banks Are Dotted With Hippopotamus Traps, Over Every Track Which
These Animals Have Made In Going Up Out Of The Water To Graze.
The
hippopotamus feeds on grass alone, and, where there is any danger,
only at night.
Its enormous lips act like a mowing-machine, and form
a path of short-cropped grass as it feeds. We never saw it eat
aquatic plants or reeds. The tusks seem weapons of both offence and
defence. The hippopotamus trap consists of a beam five or six feet
long, armed with a spear-head or hard-wood spike, covered with
poison, and suspended to a forked pole by a cord, which, coming down
to the path, is held by a catch, to be set free when the beast treads
on it. Being wary brutes, they are still very numerous. One got
frightened by the ship, as she was steaming close to the bank. In
its eager hurry to escape it rushed on shore, and ran directly under
a trap, when down came the heavy beam on its back, driving the
poisoned spear-head a foot deep into its flesh. In its agony it
plunged back into the river, to die in a few hours, and afterwards
furnished a feast for the natives. The poison on the spear-head does
not affect the meat, except the part around the wound, and that is
thrown away. In some places the descending beam is weighted with
heavy stones, but here the hard heavy wood is sufficient.
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