THE PINJIH RHINO. 29 



examination of the tracks explained the suddenness 

 of the encounter, for they showed that the rhinoceros 

 had stayed the whole night long in the wallow, and 

 the footprints proved that it really was " old kramat " 

 that we had met. This Malias was at first inclined to 

 doubt, for we had seen the animal plainly, and his 

 horn was not the cubit's length of cerulean blue that 

 every one said " old kramat " carried, but only a short, 

 black, shapeless stump ; nor had he in the least degree 

 acted up to his reputation for pugnacity. The only 

 fact in favour of the theory that it was he whom we 

 had met was that there was not a sign of blood. This 

 rather disconcerted the Malays; but I had before 

 followed a wounded rhinoceros for three miles without 

 finding a drop of blood (until the Malays had openly 

 grumbled at my following an animal that had obvi- 

 ously been missed), and had found it when I did come 

 up with it on the point of death dying, I believe, 

 from internal hemorrhage. We made but a short 

 pause by the wallow to examine the tracks, and then 

 pushed on. At once we were covered from head to 

 foot, and our rifles from stock to muzzle, with the 

 wet clay that clung to the bushes through which the 

 rhinoceros had made its way. Slimy branches drip- 

 ping with mire slapped our faces, and oozy drops of 

 mud fell upon our heads and clotted in our hair. Then 

 before we had worked more than a hundred yards of 

 our way along the track a mass of white glittering 

 clay caught my eye, and as I squatted on my heels 

 Malias reached forward to make an excited tug at my 

 coat. What we saw was on slightly higher ground 

 than that on which we stood, and appeared to be at 



