I02 A HUNTER'S WANDERINGS ch. 



had any idea of the other's whereabouts. As soon 

 as we reached the skerm, I took my two gun-carriers 

 and a couple more boys with axes, and went to chop 

 out a bees' nest I knew of close by. It proved to 

 be a well-stocked one, and we got from it, I 

 should think, from 15 to 20 lbs. of splendid 

 honey. Whilst we were engaged chopping, one of 

 my Kafirs who had wandered some distance away, 

 came running up, saying there was a white rhinoceros 

 lying asleep not a hundred yards off. Thinking the 

 noise must have already disturbed it, I did not 

 consider it worth while to go and see ; but, when 

 we had taken all the honey, I thought I would just 

 walk to where it had been, and was very much 

 surprised to find the confiding beast still lying fast 

 asleep. It must have been deaf, for we had been 

 making a tremendous noise and chatter for the last 

 half-hour, certainly not more than 150 yards away 

 from it. I walked close up to it and whistled, when 

 the sleepy animal stood up, and 1 shot it behind the 

 shoulder ; it ran about 100 yards and then stopped, 

 and a second bullet in the shoulder killed it. It was 

 a cow, and very fat ; so, leaving some Kafirs to cut 

 her up, I returned straight to the skerm with the 

 honey, and sent more boys to help carry the meat. 



By this time it was quite dark, and W. was 

 waiting for me to begin supper. Whilst chopping 

 out the honey I had heard two shots, and found on 

 inquiry that they had been fired by my comrade, 

 who had killed a black rhinoceros down near the 

 elephants' drinking-place. That night, two lions 

 drank at the small hole of water close to our skerm, 

 and then walked up a path just behind us, roaring 

 terrifically the while. They were so near, that some 

 of the Kafirs got uneasy, and threw stumps of fire- 



