-♦ Rhinoceroses 



contrast to their usual timitlity and cautiousness is the 

 way in which at nioht they seem to put oft' all fear of 

 men. I had been oblio-ed to encamp in a hollow thickly 

 grown with thorn-hushes, and my men, being tired out, 

 had sunk to sleep alter their evening meal. Suddenly 

 during the night I was awakened by one of my boys 

 with the warning: " Bwana, tembo ! " whispered excitedly 

 in my ear, while at the same moment several of my 

 men rushed into my tent to tell me the same thing — 

 that an elephant was somewhere about. I sprang up, 



ACACIA VELT 



seized one ot my ritles, and made ready for the supposed 

 elephant, when in came a number of other carriers, wild 

 with excitement, and pointing frantically out <)( the tent 

 towards a great dark object about forty paces away. In 

 the motionless mass standing there like a great shapeless 

 rock I at once recognised a rhinoceros. There he stood 

 among the small tents of my men, clearly astounded at 

 finding his wonted teeding-place full of men. Within a few 

 seconds almost all my carriers had sought shelter behind 

 me, and 1 could not help feeling pleased at the wonderful 

 VOL. I. 241 16 



