The hippopotamus feeds both on fish and on such land animals as it can take by surprise; because the weight of its body does not enable it to run them down. It has been asserted that it eats human flesh; but all the accounts which I have received, tend to refute this opinion. Besides animals and fish, we know that it eats the grass of the fields, and particularly rice, millet, peas, melons, and other vegetables, as its voracity is not easily satiated. The Negroes keep it away from their grounds by the means of noises and fires: for it makes more devastation with its feet in a piece of cultivated ground than by what it eats; and if it take a fancy to sleep in such a spot, the harvest is thereby entirely destroyed. It is while the animal thus reposes that the natives most easily destroy it by approaching in a gentle manner; and it betrays itself by its loud snoring. The Negroes take a pleasure in attacking it, on account of their agility; but they take care not to hunt it, except it be at a distance from a river to which they can prevent its return; but if it be wounded and cannot reach the water, which it searches for with more eagerness than it defends itself against the hunters, it becomes furious, and then it would be imprudent to approach it. It is very tenacious of life, and never yields it without much struggle. The hunters endeavour to break its legs with musket-balls; and if they once cause it to fall, they kill it with ease. If, however, on such an occasion, it succeed in gaining a river, it plunges headlong in; and after remaining for an instant at the bottom, it appears again at the surface, pricks up its ears, and looks about in every direction, as if in search of those who had forced it to quit the pasture; it then neighs, and plunges again to the bottom, which it reaches, whatever may be its depth, where it doubtless remains more safe, and perhaps more at its ease than it would be between two bodies of water. There is some danger in attacking it on the rivers: for if the hunters miss their aim, it tries to avenge itself, and often does great injury to the boats which are in pursuit of it. This animal indeed does not want a certain degree of instinct: for example, it evacuates much blood, and it is asserted that it often bleeds itself; for this purpose it looks out for a sharp point of rock, which is not rare on the banks of rivers, and against this it rubs itself quickly till the friction produces an aperture capable of admitting the passage of the blood; and it is said to observe the discharge with attention and pleasure, and even to agitate itself when the stream is not sufficiently copious; but when it thinks that enough has been emitted, it goes to lie down in the mud, and thus closes up the wound.