Rhinoceros Shooting. 67 



easily killed, but if pushed hard or driven into a 

 corner it turns to bay and if it can close, it will 

 leave its marks for time and a day. Although the 

 horns are contemptible as trophies, the native 

 Assamese and Mawarries prize them greatly, and will 

 give as much as Ks.45 a seer (2 Ibs.) for them. They 

 are also greatly prized by the Chinese. Two officers, 

 Cock (afterwards killed in the Naga campaign) and 

 Bunbury, just before I arrived at Go what ty, made a 

 good bag of these beasts, and by the sale of the horns 

 more than repaid all their expenses. They live in 

 apparent harmony with wild elephants, and I have 

 seen them lying down in the same mudhole with a 

 buffalo ! 



Many castes of Brahmins, Hindoos, and Mawarries 

 will not touch flesh of any kind, living on grain and 

 vegetables alone, but they make an exception in 

 favour of the flesh of the pachyderm I am describing. 

 They have often asked me to dry the tongue for them. 

 This they pulverise, bottle it, and take a pinch or two 

 when ill. The Assamese and bigoted Hindoos follow a 

 sportsman about like vultures, and as soon as a 

 rhinoceros is dead they rush upon it, fight for the 

 tit-bits, and do not leave even a piece of the skin. 

 This they cut into long strips, roast it over embers, 

 and eat it as we do the " crackling " of a pig. Consider- 

 ing the habits of the beast, for it deposits its ordure 

 always on the same spot until a considerable mound 

 is formed, and the value put on the flesh and horns 

 by the natives, I am suqDrised there are any left alive. 

 If native shikaries dug a pit, and sat near one of these 

 places of deposit, they could easily shoot the animal 

 on its nightly visits. It was in this way that I 



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