180 HUNTING IN THE SOTIK [ch. viii 



sending in a messenger to bring Cuninghame, Heller, 

 and an ox-waggon to the carcasses. 



The stomach of this rhino contained some grass stems 

 and blades, some leaves and twig tips of bushes, but 

 chiefly the thick, thorny, fleshy leaves of a kind ot 

 Euphorbia. As the juice of the euphorbia's cactus-like 

 leaves is acrid enough to blister — not to speak of the 

 thorns — this suffices to show what a rhino's palate 

 regards as agreeably stimulating. This species of rhino, 

 by the way, affords a curious illustration of how blind 

 many men who live much of their lives outdoors may 

 be to facts which stare them in the face. For years 

 most South African hunters, and most naturalists, 

 beheved in the existence of two species of prehensile- 

 lipped, or so-called " black," rhinoceros : one with the 

 front horn much the longer, one with the rear horn at 

 least equal to the front. It was Selous, a singularly 

 clear-sighted and keen observer, who first proved con- 

 clusively that the difference was purely imaginary. 

 Now, the curious thing is that these experienced 

 lumters usually attributed entirely different tempera- j 

 ments to these two imaginary species. The first kind, 

 that with the long front horn, they described as a i 

 miracle of dangerous ferocity, and the second as com- 

 paratively mild and inoffensive ; and these veterans j 

 (Drummond is an instance) persuaded themselves that 

 this was true, although they were writing in each case ! 

 of identically the same animal ! 



After leaving the dead rhinos we rode for several 

 miles, over a plain dotted with game, and took our 

 lunch at the foot of a big range of hills, by a rapid little 

 brook, running under a fringe of shady thorns. Then i 

 we rode back to camp. Lines of zebras filed past on the i 

 horizon. Ostriches fled while we were yet far off I 



