I Have Arranged That The Sheik Shall Call In
All These Watchers, And That They Shall Accompany Me To-Morrow
Night.
I will then post myself in the centre of the plantations,
dividing the men into many parties at all points, to return
quietly to me and report the position that the elephants may have
taken.
"This morning I purchased a kid for two piastres (five pence).
The sheik is exceedingly civil, and insists upon sending me daily
supplies of milk and vegetables.
"This afternoon, accompanied by my wife, I accepted an invitation
to shoot a savage old bull hippopotamus that had been
sufficiently impertinent to chase several of the natives. He
lived in a deep and broad portion of the river, about two miles
distant. We accordingly rode to the spot, and found the old hippo
at home. The river was about 250 yards wide at this place, in an
acute bend that had formed a deep pool. In the centre of this was
a mud bank, just below the surface; upon this shallow bed the
hippo was reposing. Upon perceiving us he was exceedingly saucy,
snorting at my party, and behaving himself in a most absurd
manner, by shaking his head and leaping half-way out of the
water. This plunging demonstration was intended to frighten us.
I had previously given Bacheet a pistol, and had ordered him to
follow on the opposite bank from the ford at Wat el Negur. I now
hallooed to him to fire several shots at the hippo, in order to
drive him, if possible, towards me, as I lay in ambush behind a
rock in the bed of the river.
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