It was most amusing to watch
the astonishment, not unmixed with fear, reflected upon their
faces as they listened to his tale. Clearly they could not understand
how we had reached the lake and been found floating on it, and
were inclined to attribute our presence to supernatural causes.
Then the narrative proceeded, as I judged from the frequent
appeals that our guide made to the girl, to the point where we
had shot the hippopotami, and we at once perceived that there
was something very wrong about those hippopotami, for the history
was frequently interrupted by indignant exclamations from the
little group of white-robed priests and even from the courtiers,
while the two Queens listened with an amazed expression, especially
when our guide pointed to the rifles in our hands as being the
means of destruction. And here, to make matters clear, I may
as well explain at once that the inhabitants of Zu-Vendis are
sun-worshippers, and that for some reason or another the hippopotamus
is sacred among them. Not that they do not kill it, because
at a certain season of the year they slaughter thousands -- which
are specially preserved in large lakes up the country -- and
use their hides for armour for soldiers; but this does not prevent
them from considering these animals as sacred to the sun.
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