-* Rhinoceros-hunting 



and did not make off until they saw us. By the stream, 

 near which we pitched our camp for the night, we came 

 upon two more among some bushes, and yet another 

 rushing through a thicket which we had to traverse on 

 our way to the waterside. In the night several others 

 passed down the deep-trodden path to the stream, 

 fortunately heralding their approach by loud, angry- 

 sounding snorts. 



Many such nights have I spent out in the wild ; but 

 I would not now go through with such experiences very 

 willingly, for I have heard tell of too many mishaps 

 to other travellers under such conditions. That seasoned 

 Rhenish sportsman Niedieck, for instance, in his inter- 

 esting book Mit der Biichse in fiinf }Veltteilen, gives a 

 striking account of a misadventure he met with in the 

 Sudan, near the banks of the Nile. In very similar 

 circumstances his camp was attacked by elephants during 

 the night ; he himself was badly injured, and one of his 

 men nearly killed. This danger in regions where rhino- 

 ceroses or elephants are much hunted is by no means 

 to be underestimated. Rather it should be taken to 

 heart. According to the same writer, the elephants in 

 Ceylon sometimes " go for " the travellers' rest-houses 

 erected by the Government and destroy them. These 

 things have brought it home to me that I was in much 

 greater peril of my life during those night encampments 

 of mine on the velt and in primeval forests than I realised 

 at the time. 



In those parts of East Africa there is a tendency to 

 imagine that a zareba is not essential to safety, and that 



457 



