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I now reloaded my rifles, and the aggageers quitted the jungle to
remount their horses, as they expected the herd had broken cover
on the other side of the jungle; in which case they intended to
give chase, and if possible, to turn them back into the covert,
and drive them towards the guns. We accordingly took our stand in
the small open glade, and I lent Florian one of my double rifles,
as he was only provided with one single-barrelled elephant gun.
I did not wish to destroy the prestige of the rifles, by hinting
to the aggageers that it would be rather awkward for us to
receive the charge of the infuriated herd, as the foreheads were
invulnerable; but inwardly I rather hoped that they would not
come so direct upon our position as the aggageers wished.

About a quarter of an hour passed in suspense, when we suddenly
heard a chorus of wild cries of excitement on the other side of
the jungle, raised iy the aggageers, who had headed the herd, and
were driving them back towards us. In a few minutes a tremendous
crashing in the jungle, accompanied by the occasional shrill
scream of a savage elephant, and the continued shouts of the
mounted aggageers, assured us that they were bearing down exactly
upon our direction; they were apparently followed even through
the dense jungle by the wild and reckless Arabs. I called my men
close together, and told them to stand fast, and hand me the guns
quickly; and we eagerly awaited the onset that rushed towards us
like a storm. On they came, tearing everything before them. For
a moment the jungle quivered and crashed; a second later, and,
headed by an immense elephant, the herd thundered down upon us.
The great leader came direct at me, and was received with right
and left in the forehead from a Reilly No. 10 as fast as I could
pull the triggers. The shock made it reel backwards for an
instant, and fortunately turned it and the herd likewise. My
second rifle was beautifully handed, and I made a quick right and
left at the temples of two fine elephants, dropping them both
stone-dead. At this moment the "Baby" was pushed into my hand by
Hadji Ali just in time to take the shoulder of the last of the
herd, who had already charged headlong after his comrades, and
was disappearing in the jungle. Bang! went the "Baby;" round I
spun like a weathercock, with the blood pouring from my nose, as
the recoil had driven the sharp top of the hammer deep into the
bridge. My "Baby" not only screamed, but kicked viciously.
However, I knew that the elephant must be bagged, as the
half-pound shell had been aimed directly behind the shoulder.

In a few minutes the aggageers arrived; they were bleeding from
countless scratches, as, although naked, with the exception of
short drawers, they had forced their way on horseback through the
thorny path cleft by the herd in rushing through the jungle. Abou
Do had blood upon his sword. They had found the elephants
commencing a retreat to the interior of the country, and they had
arrived just in time to turn them. Following them at full speed,
Abou Do had succeeded in overtaking and slashing the sinew of an
elephant just as it was entering the jungle. Thus the aggageers
had secured one, in addition to Fiorian's elephant that had been
slashed by Jali. We now hunted for the "Baby's" elephant, which
was almost immediately discovered lying dead within a hundred and
fifty yards of the place where it had received the shot. The
shell had entered close to the shoulder, and it was extraordinary
that an animal should have been able to travel so great a
distance with a wound through the lungs by a shell that had
exploded within the body.

We had done pretty well. I had been fortunate in bagging four
from this herd, in addition to the single bull in the morning;
total, five. Florian had killed one, and the aggageers one;
total, seven elephants. One had escaped that I had wounded in the
shoulder, and two that had been wounded by Florian.

The aggageers were delighted, and they determined to search for
the wounded elephants on the following day, as the evening was
advancing, and we were about five miles from camp. Having my
measuring-tape in a game-bag that was always carried by
Abdoolahi, I measured accurately one of the elephants that had
fallen with the legs stretched out, so that the height to the
shoulder could be exactly taken:--From foot to shoulder in a
direct line, nine feet one inch; circumference of foot, four feet
eight inches. The elephant lying by her side was still larger,
but the legs being doubled up, I could not measure her: these
were females.

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. The
extreme end of the short harpoon is fixed in the point of a
bamboo about ten feet long, around which the rope is twisted,
while the buoy end is carried in the left hand.

The old Abou Do being resolved upon work, had divested himself of
his tope or toga before starting, according to the general custom
of the aggageers, who usually wear a simple piece of leather
wound round the loins when hunting, but, I believe in respect for
our party, they had provided themselves with a garment resembling
bathing drawers, such as are worn in France, Germany, and other
civilized countries; but the old Abou Do, like the English, had
resisted any such innovation, and he accordingly appeared with
nothing on but his harpoon; and a more superb old Neptune I never
beheld. He carried this weapon in his hand, as the trident with
which the old sea-god ruled the monsters of the deep; and as the
tall Arab patriarch of threescore years and ten, with his long
grey locks flowing over his brawny shoulders, stepped as lightly
as a goat from rock to rock along the rough margin of the river,
I followed him in admiration.

The country was very beautiful; we were within twenty miles of
lofty mountains, while at a distance of about thirty-five or
forty miles were the high peaks of the Abyssinian Alps. The
entire land was richly wooded, although open, and adapted for
hunting upon horseback. Through this wild and lovely country the
river Settite flowed in an ever-changing course. At times the bed
was several hundred yards wide, with the stream, contracted at
this season, flowing gently over rounded pebbles; the water was
as clear as glass; in other places huge masses of rock impeded
the flow of water, and caused dangerous rapids; then, as the
river passed through a range of hills, perpendicular cliffs of
sandstone and of basalt walled it within a narrow channel,
through which it rushed with great impetuosity; issuing from
these straits it calmed its fury in a deep and broad pool, from
which it again commenced a gentle course over sands and pebbles.
At that season the river would have been perfection for salmon,
being a series of rapids, shallows, deep and rocky gorges, and
quiet silent pools of unknown depth; in the latter places of
security the hippopotami retreated after their nocturnal rambles
upon terra firma. The banks of this beautiful river were
generally thickly clothed with bright green nabbuk trees, that
formed a shelter for INNUMERABLE guinea-fowl, and the black
francolin partridge. Herds of antelopes of many varieties were
forced to the river to drink, as the only water within many miles;
but these never remained long among the thick nabbuk, as the lions
and leopards inhabited that covert expressly to spring upon the
unwary animal whose thirst prompted a too heedless advance.
Wherever there was a sand bank in the river, a crocodile basked
in the morning sunshine: some of these were of enormous size.

Hippopotami had trodden a path along the margin of the river, as
these animals came out to feed shortly after dark, and travelled
from pool to pool. Wherever a plot of tangled and succulent
herbage grew among the shady nabbuks, there were the marks of the
harrow-like teeth, that had torn and rooted up the rank grass
like an agricultural implement.

After walking about two miles, we noticed a herd of hippopotami
in a pool below a rapid: this was surrounded by rocks, except
upon one side, where the rush of water had thrown up a bank of
pebbles and sand. Our old Neptune did not condescend to bestow
the slightest attention when I pointed out these animals; they
were too wide awake; but he immediately quitted the river's bed,
and we followed him quietly behind the fringe of bushes upon the
border, from which we carefully examined the water. About half a
mile below this spot, as we clambered over the intervening rocks
through a gorge which formed a powerful rapid, I observed, in a
small pool just below the rapid, an immense head of a
hippopotamus close to a perpendicular rock that formed a wall to
the river, about six feet above the surface. I pointed out the
hippo to old Abou Do, who had not seen it. At once the gravity of
the old Arab disappeared, and the energy of the hunter was
exhibited as he motioned us to remain, while he ran nimbly behind
the thick screen of bushes for about a hundred and fifty yards
below the spot where the hippo was unconsciously basking, with
his ugly head above the surface. Plunging into the rapid torrent,
the veteran hunter was carried some distance down the stream, but
breasting the powerful current, he landed upon the rocks on the
opposite side, and retiring to some distance from the river, he
quickly advanced towards the spot beneath which the hippopotamus
was lying. I had a fine view of the scene, as I was lying
concealed exactly opposite the hippo, who had disappeared beneath
the water. Abou Do now stealthily approached the ledge of rock
beneath which he had expected to see the head of the animal; his
long sinewy arm was raised, with the harpoon ready to strike, as
he carefully advanced. At length he reached the edge of the
perpendicular rock; the hippo had vanished, but, far from
exhibiting surprise, the old Arab remained standing on the sharp
ledge, unchanged in attitude. No figure of bronze could have been
more rigid than that of the old river-king, as he stood erect
upon the rock with the left foot advanced, and the harpoon poised
in his ready right hand above his head, while in the left he held
the loose coils of rope attached to the ambatch buoy. For about
three minutes he stood like a statue, gazing intently into the
clear and deep water beneath his feet. I watched eagerly for the
reappearance of the hippo; the surface of the water was still
barren, when suddenly the right arm of the statue descended like
lightning, and the harpoon shot perpendicularly into the pool
with the speed of an arrow. What river-fiend answered to the
summons? In an instant an enormous pair of open jaws appeared,
followed by the ungainly head and form of the furious
hippopotamus, who, springing half out of the water, lashed the
river into foam, and, disdaining the concealment of the deep
pool, he charged straight up the violent rapids. With
extraordinary power he breasted the descending stream; gaining a
footing in the rapids, about five feet deep, he ploughed his way
against the broken waves, sending them in showers of spray upon
all sides, and upon gaining broader shallows he tore along
through the water, with the buoyant float hopping behind him
along the surface, until he landed from the river, started at
full gallop along the dry shingly bed, and at length disappeared
in the thorny nabbuk jungle.

I never could have imagined that so unwieldy an animal could have
exhibited such speed; no man would have had a chance of escape,
and it was fortunate for our old Neptune that he was secure upon
the high ledge of rock, for if he had been in the path of the
infuriated beast. there would have been an end of Abou Do. The
old man plunged into the deep pool just quitted by the hippo, and
landed upon our side; while in the enthusiasm of the moment I
waved my cap above my head, and gave him a British cheer as he
reached the shore. His usually stern features relaxed into a grim
smile of delight: this was one of those moments when the
gratified pride of the hunter rewards him for any risks. I
congratulated him upon his dexterity: but much remained to be
done. I proposed to cross the river, and to follow upon the
tracks of the hippopotamus, as I imagined that the buoy and rope
would catch in the thick jungle, and that we should find him
entangled in the bush; but the old hunter gently laid his hand
upon my arm, and pointed up the bed of the river, explaining that
the hippo would certainly return to the water after a short
interval.

In a few minutes later, at a distance of nearly half a mile, we
observed the hippo emerge from the jungle, and descend at full
trot to the bed of the river, making direct for the first rocky
pool in which we had noticed the herd of hippopotami. Accompanied
by the old howarti (hippo hunter), we walked quickly towards the
spot: he explained to me that I must shoot the harpooned hippo,
as we should not be able to secure him in the usual method by
ropes, as nearly all our men were absent from camp, disposing of
the dead elephants.

Upon reaching the pool, which was about a hundred and thirty
yards in diameter, we were immediately greeted by the hippo, who
snorted and roared as we approached, but quickly dived, and the
buoyant float ran along the surface, directing his course in the
same manner as the cork of a trimmer with a pike upon the hook.
Several times he appeared, but, as he invariably faced us, I
could not obtain a favourable shot; I therefore sent the old
hunter round the pool, and he, swimming the river, advanced to
the opposite side, and attracted the attention of the hippo who
immediately turned towards him. This afforded me a good chance,
and I fired a steady shot behind the ear, at about seventy yards,
with a single-barrelled rifle. As usual with hippopotami, whether
dead or alive, he disappeared beneath the water at the shot. The
crack of the ball and the absence of any splash from the bullet
told me that he was hit; the ambatch float remained perfectly
stationary upon the surface. I watched it for some minutes--it
never moved; several heads of hippopotami appeared and vanished
in different directions, but the float was still; it marked the
spot where the grand old bull lay dead beneath.

I shot another hippo, that I thought must be likewise dead; and,
taking the time by my watch, I retired to the shade of a tree
with Hassan, while Hadji Ali and the old hunter returned to camp
for assistance in men and knives, &c.

In a little more than an hour and a half, two objects like the
backs of turtles appeared above the surface: these were the
flanks of the two hippos. A short time afterwards the men
arrived, and, regardless of crocodiles, they swam towards the
bodies. One was towed directly to the shore by the rope attached
to the harpoon, the other was secured by a long line, and dragged
to the bank of clean pebbles.

I measured the bull that was harpooned; it was fourteen feet two
inches from the upper lip to the extremity of the tail; the head
was three feet one inch from the front of the ear to the edge of
the lip in a straight line. The harpoon was sticking in the nape
of the neck, having penetrated about two and a half inches
beneath the hide; this is about an inch and three-quarters thick
upon the back of the neck of a bull hippopotamus. It was a
magnificent specimen, with the largest tusks I have ever seen;
the skull is now in my hall in England.

Although the hippopotamus is generally harmless, the solitary old
bulls are sometimes extremely vicious, especially when in the
water. I have frequently known them charge a boat, and I have
myself narrowly escaped being upset in a canoe by the attack of
one of these creatures, without the slightest provocation. The
females are extremely shy and harmless, and they are most
affectionate mothers: the only instances that I have known of the
female attacking a man, have been those in which her calf had
been stolen. To the Arabs they are extremely valuable, yielding,
in addition to a large quantity of excellent flesh, about two
hundred pounds of fat, and a hide that will produce about two
hundred coorbatches, or camel whips. I have never shot these
useful creatures to waste; every morsel of the flesh has been
stored either by the natives or for our own use; and whenever we
have had a good supply of antelope or giraffe meat, I have
avoided firing a shot at the hippo. Elephant flesh is exceedingly
strong and disagreeable, partaking highly of the peculiar smell
of the animal. We had now a good supply of meat from the two
hippopotami, which delighted our people. The old Abou Do claimed
the bull that he had harpooned as his own private property, and
he took the greatest pains in dividing the hide longitudinally,
in strips of the width of three fingers, which he cut with great
dexterity.

Although the hippopotamus is amphibious, he requires a large and
constant supply of air; the lungs are of enormous size, and he
invariably inflates them before diving. From five to eight
minutes is the time that he usually remains under water; he then
comes to the surface, and expends the air within his lungs by
blowing; he again refills the lungs almost instantaneously, and
if frightened, he sinks immediately. In places where they have
become extremely shy from being hunted, or fired at, they seldom
expose the head above the surface, but merely protrude the nose
to breathe through the nostrils; it is then impossible to shoot
them. Their food consists of aquatic plants, and grasses of many
descriptions. Not only do they visit the margin of the river, but
they wander at night to great distances from the water if
attracted by good pasturage, and, although clumsy and ungainly in
appearance, they clamber up steep banks and precipitous ravines
with astonishing power and ease. In places where they are
perfectly undisturbed, they not only enjoy themselves in the
sunshine by basking half asleep upon the surface of the water,
but they lie upon the shore beneath the shady trees, upon the
river's bank; I have seen them, when disturbed by our sudden
arrival during the march, take a leap from a bank about twenty
feet perpendicular depth into the water below, with a splash that
has created waves in the quiet pool, as though a paddle-steamer
had passed by. The Arabs attach no value to the tusks; these are
far more valuable than elephant ivory, and are used by dentists
in Europe for the manufacture of false teeth, for which they are
admirably adapted, as they do not change colour. Not wishing to
destroy the remaining hippopotami that were still within the
pool, I left my men and old Abou Do busily engaged in arranging
the meat, and I walked quietly homeward.

CHAPTER XIV.

A FOREBODING OF EVIL.

I HAD been for some hours in the camp, but none of the aggageers
had returned, neither had we received any tidings of our people
and camels that had left us at daybreak to search for the dead
elephants. Fearing that some mishap might have occurred in a
collision with the Base, I anxiously looked out for some sign of
the party. At about 4 P.M. I observed far up the bed of the river
several men, some mounted, and others upon foot, while one led a
camel with a curious looking load. Upon a nearer approach I could
distinguish some large object upon the camel's back, that was
steadied by two men, one of whom walked on either side. I had a
foreboding that something was wrong, and in a few minutes I
clearly perceived a man lying upon a make-shift litter, carried
by the camel, while the Sheik Abou Do and Suleiman accompanied
the party upon horseback; a third led Jali's little grey mare.

They soon arrived beneath the high bank of the river upon which
I stood. Poor little Jali, my plucky and active ally, lay, as I
thought, dead upon the litter. We laid him gently upon my
angarep, which I had raised by four men, so that we could lower
him gradually from the kneeling camel, and we carried him to the
camp, about thirty yards distant. He was faint, and I poured some
essence of peppermint (the only spirit I possessed) down his
throat, which quickly revived him. His thigh was broken about
eight inches above the knee, but fortunately it was a simple
fracture.

Abou Do now explained the cause of the accident. While the party
of camel-men and others were engaged in cutting up the dead
elephants, the three aggageers had found the track of a bull that
had escaped wounded. In that country, where there was no drop of
water upon the east bank of the Settite for a distance of sixty
or seventy miles to the river Gash, an elephant if wounded was
afraid to trust itself to the interior; one of our escaped
elephants had therefore returned to the thick jungle, and was
tracked by the aggageers to a position within two or three
hundred yards of the dead elephants. As there were no guns, two
of the aggageers, utterly reckless of consequences, resolved to
ride through the narrow passages formed by the large game, and to
take their chance with the elephant, sword in hand. Jali, as
usual, was the first to lead, and upon his little grey mare he
advanced with the greatest difficulty through the entangled
thorns, broken by the passage of heavy game; to the right and
left of the passage it was impossible to move. Abou Do had wisely
dismounted, but Suleiman followed Jali. Upon arriving within a
few yards of the elephant, which was invisible in the thick
thorns, Abou Do crept forward on foot, and discovered it standing
with ears cocked, evidently waiting for the attack. As Jali
followed on his light grey mare, the elephant immediately
perceived the white colour, and at once charged forward. Escape
was next to impossible: Jali turned his mare sharp round, and she
bounded off, but caught in the thorns, the mare fell, throwing
her rider in the path of the elephant that was within a few feet
behind, in full chase. The mare recovered herself in an instant,
and rushed away; the elephant, occupied by the white colour of
the animal, neglected the man, upon whom he trod in the pursuit,
thus breaking his thigh. Abou Do, who had been between the
elephant and Jali, had wisely jumped into the thick thorns, and,
as the elephant passed him, he again sprang out behind, and
followed with his drawn sword, but too late to save Jali, as it
was the affair of an instant. Jumping over Jali's body, he was
just in time to deliver a tremendous cut at the hind leg of the
elephant, that must otherwise have killed both horses and
probably Suleiman also, as the three were caught in a cul de sac
in a passage that had no outlet, and were at the elephant's
mercy.

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