A RIDE THROUGH RHINO COUNTRY 321 
was a crash, down went the tent; then another crash, 
followed by loud cries from his men. He rushed back 
to find his friend crawling out unhurt from the wreckage, 
all bespattered with jam. He was scarcely awake, and 
quite at a loss to know what had happened. “‘Is it a 
tornado?” said he. Mr. Percivale’s bed, from which 
he had risen but a moment before, was smashed to atoms. 
A tin of jam, crushed by the great beast’s foot, had ex- 
ploded like a bomb shell, spattering jam over everything. 
He called to his men and was answered by groans. One 
of them was badly trampled, and another bundled up in 
his little tent had been carried bodily off for twenty yards. 
The rhino’s horn had cut a deep gash in the man’s forehead, 
otherwise he was unhurt. 
J have known of a rhino at night taking both sides 
of a Massai munyata in full charge, and scattering men, 
women, children and cattle right and left like a swarm 
of angry bees. But these are the only instances in which 
I have heard of a night attack by them. Were such 
things common, sefari life would be much less pleasant 
than it is, for neither their bomas nor campfires would 
prove any protection. 
When I was near Fort Hall three years ago, a Gov- 
ernment surveyor was run down by a rhino,and so badly 
trampled and horned that he died in two days. He had 
been warned not to go unarmed, but thought the chances 
of meeting a dangerous beast so slight that he could 
dispense with the bother of a rifle! 
I may as well here tell my own experiences with the 
rhino. I shot the first two rhino I came across; they 
carried fairly good horns, and I shot them without any 
trouble. One bullet was enough for each, and each fell 
to a chest shot rather low down and full in front; a sure 
place to kill, I found it, though it is not usually counted so. 
Hit here by a solid .450 Cordite rifle, they wheeled at right 
