92 RHINO AND GIRAFFES [ch. iv 



horses, because there was no water where we were 

 going, and furthermore we did not hke to expose them 

 to a possible attack by hons. The march out by moon- 

 hght was good fun, for though I had been out all day, 

 I had been riding, not walking, and so was not tired. 

 A hundred porters went with us so as to enable us to 

 do the work quickly and bring back to camp the skins 

 and all the meat needed, and these porters carried 

 water, food for breakfast, and what little was necessary 

 for a one-night camp. We tramped along in single file 

 under the moonlight, up and down the hills, and through 

 the scattered thorn forest. Kermit and Medlicott went 

 first, and struck such a pace that after an hour we had 

 to halt them so as to let the tail end of the file of 

 porters catch up. Then Captain Slatter and 1 set a 

 more decorous pace, keeping the porters closed up in 

 line behind us. In another hour we began to go down 

 a long slope toward a pin-point of light in the distance, 

 which we knew was the fire by the rhinoceros. The 

 porters, like the big children they were, felt in high 

 feather, and began to chant to an accompaniment of 

 whistling and horn-blowing as we tramped through the 

 dry grass which was fiooded with silver by the moon, 

 now high in the heavens. 



As soon as we reached the rhino. Heller with his 

 Wakamba skinners pushed forward the three-quarters of 

 a mile to the eland, returning after midnight with the 

 skin and all the best parts of the meat. 



Around the dead rhino the scene was lit up both by 

 the moon and by the flicker of the fires. The porters 

 made their camp under a small tree a dozen rods to one 

 side of the carcass, building a low circular fence of 

 branches, on which they hung their bright-coloured 

 blankets, two or three big fires blazing to keep off 



