THE SUMATRAN RHINOCEROS l8j 



The name " Banda Api" (or fire rhinoceros) applied 

 to the Sumatran animal has been held to indicate its 

 red appearance after rolling in the mud ; but another 

 and much more interesting explanation may be the 

 true one. It is said that fire has a peculiar attraction 

 for these animals, which will approach one lighted 

 in the jungle and even endeavour to extinguish the 

 blaze curious enough if true, and quite inexplicable. 

 Similar tales have been recounted of the African 

 species ; thus one of the older writers relates how 

 a black rhinoceros .once rushed into a party of 

 soldiers bivouacked on the banks of a river, injuring 

 them and putting out the fire ; and the Hon. W. H. 

 Drummond has recorded how in Zululand a black 

 rhinoceros once made an unprovoked attack on his 

 camp fire, scattering it in all directions and stamping 

 it out with its feet as it squealed with rage. The 

 white species has been known to approach within 

 twenty yards of a camp fire, only retreating when a 

 brand hurled at it struck its snout. 



The Sumatran rhinoceros is extensively taken in 

 pitfalls, the horns being bartered to the Chinese, who 

 use them as medicine ; in Canton the druggists 

 exhibit them for sale amongst other strange 

 materia medica. For some diseases the horns are 

 ground into powder, for others fragments are worn 

 amulet-fashion about the person. Rhinoceros horns 

 are divided into four classes : Sumbu lilin (wax- 

 coloured), Sumbu api (fire-coloured), Sumbu nila 



