Rhinoceros 



fortunate for the caravan that it should be up- 

 wind! If it wasn't, how could the rhino scent 

 it?) O.E.D. 



On these occasions porters hurl their loads 

 (they have no brains, or these would go too) into 

 oblivion, and shin up trees. Every one who is 

 armed loads in a desperate hurry. Master shouts 

 for his big rifle, and everybody is on the qui vive 

 to see what is going to happen next. 



It is true a beastly rhino, on a similar occasion 

 to the one depicted, came across my own roll 

 of bedding, and actually charged it from a distance 

 of exactly two yards, and what is more, he knocked 

 spots off it. He tossed it, and finished by sitting 

 and rolling on it, thinking, no doubt, that there 

 was one man less in the world. I laughed im- 

 moderately. 



On another occasion I had just lined out some 

 hundred Masai armed with spears and shields to 

 rush a hostile village, when a rhino turned up, 

 going like smoke. It was most interesting to see 

 how little they made of it. Eight or ten skipped 

 out of the way. He passed through the line, 

 and I saw him still going strong in a cloud 

 of dust two solid miles away on the sky-line. 

 This took place on the River Tana under Mount 

 Kenia. 



The funniest thing I ever saw connected with 

 one of these antediluvian beasts was when five 

 porters had with great difficulty climbed, and 



79 



