Once, when our boat was near
shore, I saw a hippopotamus get underneath it, lift it above the water
upon his back, and overset it, with six men who were in it."
"We dare not," says another traveler, "irritate the hippopotamus in the
water, since an adventure happened which came near proving fatal to the
men. They were going in a small canoe, to kill one of these animals in a
river, where there were some eight or ten feet of water. After they had
discovered him walking at the bottom of the river, according to his
custom, they wounded him with a long lance, which so greatly irritated
him, that he rose immediately to the surface of the water, regarded them
with a terrible look, opened his mouth, and with one bite took a great
piece out of the side of the canoe, and very nearly overturned it, but
he plunged again almost directly to the bottom of the river."
The Weasel.
Great numbers of weasels, it seems, sometimes unite together, and defend
themselves pretty resolutely against the attacks of men. A laborer in
Scotland was one day suddenly attacked by six weasels, who rushed upon
him from an old wall near the place where he was at work at the time.
The man, alarmed, as well he might have been, by such a furious onset,
took to his heels; but he soon found he was closely pursued. Although he
had in his hand a large horse-whip, with which he endeavored to frighten
back his enemies, yet so eager were they in pursuing him, that he was on
the point of being seized by the throat, when he fortunately noticed the
fallen branch of a tree, at a little distance, which he reached, and
snatching it up as fiercely as possible, rallied upon his enemies,
and killed three of them, when the remainder thought it best to give up
the battle, and left the field.
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