A Hippopotamus Hunt

1910

The chief breaks the spell — he stands up and gives his orders. All rise, and at a signal the men go down upon the green carpet of floating field.

Complete silence again — we hold our breath in anxious expectation. The hippo is invisible; if he is there he is hidden under the protecting grasses. Our wait is short; the hippo is indeed there; a man has felt him under his feet. But the beast travels under the moving vault. The blacks never lose track of him for a moment; the circle closes in; for an instant they fear that he will escape them by going out toward the river, and they hurry after him with lances poised; but he goes back to the middle of the lake by an underground passage. A man is knocked over; jostled by the invisible animal, he loses his footing and falls.

The hippo is here — quite close to us — we see the grasses move; with great skill a man throws a harpoon with a strong cord attached to it. A shout of joy goes up; the harpoon stays upright, firmly planted in the animal's back. He disappears once more, and the crowd of hunters pursues him closely. A second and a third harpoon are successfully thrown, and the ends of the ropes quickly passed to men in canoes. They pull at the animal, which struggles and resists, pushing up his head, bellows furiously. He plunges down again, pulling after him the canoes and paddlers. There is an anxious moment, but the weight of numbers tells, and he is brought back to the surface.

Finding he cannot escape, he becomes infuriated; he fights and struggles and throws himself against the canoes, biting at them with his huge jaws; he turns and attempts to charge, then tries again to wreck the canoes. It is too dangerous a game to be allowed to continue, and the men close in and spear him to death with their long lances. His death is almost pathetic; with an effort he lifts his forequarters out of the water, and rests his head sadly against the side of a canoe. Then his head falls, his eyes close, and he dies. — H.R.H. the Duchess of Aosta, in Harper's Weekly.