Therefore the black people who dwelt in that region called him
"Ippi"--the jolly one, although they dared not come anigh him on
account of his fierce mother, and his equally fierce uncles and
aunts and cousins, who lived in a vast colony upon the river bank.

And while these black people, who lived in little villages scattered
among the trees, dared not openly attack the royal family of
hippopotamuses, they were amazingly fond of eating hippopotamus meat
whenever they could get it. This was no secret to the
hippopotamuses. And, again, when the blacks managed to catch these
animals alive, they had a trick of riding them through the jungles
as if they were horses, thus reducing them to a condition of
slavery.

Therefore, having these things in mind, whenever the tribe of
hippopotamuses smelled the oily odor of black people they were
accustomed to charge upon them furiously, and if by chance they
overtook one of the enemy they would rip him with their sharp tusks
or stamp him into the earth with their huge feet.

It was continual warfare between the hippopotamuses and the black
people.

Gouie lived in one of the little villages of the blacks. He was the
son of the chief's brother and grandson of the village sorcerer, the
latter being an aged man known as the "the boneless wonder," because
he could twist himself into as many coils as a serpent and had no
bones to hinder his bending his flesh into any position. This made
him walk in a wabbly fashion, but the black people had great respect
for him.