1^16 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



of the Barabras begins ; and that from that point I 

 would be governed by circumstances. It is seventy- 

 live leagues or so from Cairo to Assouan, and travel- 

 ling as we did, only by day, it took us a month, — one 

 of the pleasantest of my life. The shores are lined 

 with ruins, broken monuments, temples, and palaces of 

 the Pharaohs, that fill the most unimaginative with 

 delightful dreams of the past. 



One day I was taking a nap in the comfortable cabin 

 of my craft, when I heard loud cries of native children 

 on the bank, and at the same mome]it Thursday came 

 running in to call me on deck. 



" What 's ail this row about ? " grumbled I. 



" Come and see the wicked beast with a tusk on the 

 end of his nose ! " 



I left the boat by the plank that connected us with 

 shore, to find a rhinoceros led by a party of Abyssinians, 

 who made him perform antics like a trained dog. He 

 would stand on his hind legs, lie down, get up, and dance 

 at command, grunting with apparent admiration of his 

 own accomplishments. His keepers assured me, through 

 an interpreter, that it was not an uncommon sight in 

 their own country, and that they had put the rhinoceros 

 to all sorts of more useful employments. 



It was on this trip that I had a narrow escape from 

 falling into the jaws of "the river horse," — hippopota- 

 mus, one of the laro^est of mammals. This animal can 

 never have been very common on the lower part of the 



