Page:Seven Years in South Africa v2.djvu/169

 not only with fresh and dried fish, but particularly with hippopotamus-flesh.

The boats that are used as “mokoro tshi kubu” (hippopotamus-canoes) are of the smallest size, only just large enough for one; they are difficult to manage, but are very swift; the weapons employed are long barbed assegais, of which the shafts are so light that they are not heavier than the ordinary short javelins for military use.

While I was in Sesheke I heard of a sad casualty that had occurred near the town in the previous year. A Masupia on his way down the river saw a hippopotamus asleep on a sandy bank, and believing that he might make it an easy prey, approached it very gently and thrust his spear right under the shoulder. The barb, however, glinted off its side, inflicting only a trifling wound. In a second, before the man had time to get away, the infuriated brute was up, and after him. In vain he rolled himself over to conceal himself in the grass; the beast seemed resolved to trample him to pieces; he held up his right hand as a protection, and it was crushed by the monster’s fangs; he stretched out his left, and it was amputated by a single bite. He was alterwards found by some fishermen in a most mutilated state, barely able to recount his misfortune before he died.

Although I have often tasted hippopotamus-meat, I cannot say that I like it. The gelatinous skin when roasted is considered a delicacy; in its raw state it makes excellent handles for knives and workmen’s tools, as it shrinks as it dries, and takes firm hold upon the metal.

If a hippopotamus is killed within fifty miles of