1056 THE UNGULATES, OR HOOFED MAMMALS 



As a matter of fact, the skin of the living animal is quite soft, and can readily 

 be penetrated in any place by a bullet, or easily pierced by a hunting knife. When 

 dried it becomes, however, exceedingly hard; and it was formerly employed by the 

 Indian princes in the manufacture of shields for their soldiery. General Kinloch 

 states that "if polished the hide is very handsome and semitransparent, and when 

 held up to the light looks exactly like tortoise shell, the tubercles giving it a beau- 

 tiful mottled appearance." 



The horn is used by the Hindus (to whom in common with the natives of most 

 parts of India, the animal is known by the name of gainda) in some of their relig- 

 ious ceremonies; when manufactured into cups it is considered by the Chinese to 

 possess the property of indicating the presence of poison. 



There are two modes, according to General Kinloch, of hunting the 

 Hunting 



Indian rhinoceros " one by quietly tracking up the animal on a sin- 

 gle elephant until he is at last found in his lair, or perhaps standing quite uncon- 

 scious of danger; the other, by beating him out of jungles with a line of elephants, 

 the guns being stationed at the points where he is most likely to break cover. In 

 the latter case it is necessary to have reliable men with the beaters, who can exer- 

 cise authority and keep them in order, for both mahouts and elephants have the 

 greatest dread of the huge brute, who appears to be much more formidable than he 

 really is." 



The same writer gives his experience of rhinoceros hunting as follows. On a 

 certain occasion the General and his party "had tracked a wounded buffalo into a 

 large and very thick cover, into which it was useless to follow him with any chance 

 of getting a shot. The three guns, therefore, went on ahead, and took up their po- 

 sitions at the other end of the cover, while the pad elephants were ordered to form 

 line and beat steadily through the jungle. After waiting a long time at my post I 

 heard some large animal crashing through the reeds, and as the line of beaters ad- 

 vanced the waving of the grass betrayed its movements. It came on very slowly, 

 occasionally stopping for some time to listen, and again making a cautious advance. 

 I remained still as death, but I was in a great state of anxiety lest my elephant 

 should become uneasy and give the alarm. Fortunately, he remained silent, and at 

 length the rhinoceros, anticipating no danger ahead, and pressed by the steadily ad- 

 vancing line of elephants behind him, poked his ugly head out of the reeds within 

 twenty yards of me. I could only see his snout and his horn, and aimed above the 

 latter for his forehead. I either took a bad aim, or my elephant moved slightly as 

 I fired, for, as I afterward found, my bullet merely grazed the snout, cutting a deep 

 furrow along the base of the horn. As the rhinoceros wheeled round, I gave him 

 another bullet in the centre of his ribs, and he rushed back into the reeds and 

 through the beaters with an angry grunt. On search being made in the jungle, it 

 was found that the second bullet had done its work, the huge animal lying dead 

 with its legs folded beneath the body in the usual recumbent posture." 

 Javan The J avan > or lesser one-horned rhinoceros (R. sondaiciis), is an al- 



Rhinoceros to ? etner smaller animal than the preceding, with the head relatively 

 less large in proportion to the body, although its height at the shoul- 

 der is scarcely, if at all, inferior. The skin, which is nearly or quite naked, lacks 



