THE PINJIH RHINO. 31 



we had of course to move in perfect silence. The 

 sun struck fair on our rounded backs, and we were 

 surrounded by myriads of flies. They flew into our 

 eyes, imprisoned themselves in our ears, or crawled 

 clog-footed over our glistening faces. We pushed on 

 extremely slowly, for we had no desire to come up 

 with the rhinoceros in this horrible tangle, where we 

 had but little chance of self-defence. There was no 

 alternative, however, but to stick to the tracks. We 

 could not say what line the animal intended to take, 

 and to make a detour was therefore out of the ques- 

 tion. The only thing to do was to give the rhinoceros 

 time to move on, and to trust to meeting him in more 

 favourable country. At first the track showed that 

 he could not decide whether to go straight away or 

 whether to refuse to leave the advantage the thick 

 scrub gave, or, thirdly, whether to wait in the path 

 and fight. This, of course, necessitated extreme 

 caution, but at last after some two or three hours 

 we emerged from the scrub and re-entered the forest. 

 Soon afterwards we saw a few scanty drops of blood, 

 and Malias was much reassured thereby. Then the 

 rhinoceros took a definite line across country, and at 

 about one o'clock we came to a small stream that it had 

 crossed. Here we waited for Pa' Senik and the men. 

 When they came up they informed us that we were 

 close to the place where Japaringonen had been killed 

 by this animal. After our meal and a cigarette we 

 pushed on again. Before we had gone another mile a 

 snort and rush showed that we had come up with " old 

 kramat " again. His behaviour was most extraordin- 

 ary : from a distance perhaps of some fifty yards away 



