xxi HORNS 275 



horn. The square mouthed species does not indulge in 

 such antics, but when a small calf accompanies its 

 mother, it always runs in front and she appears to guide 

 it by holding the point of her horn upon the little 

 animal's rump. Selous further states that in all sudden 

 changes of pace from a trot to a gallop, or vice versa, 

 the same position is always exactly maintained. 



The African elephant has a number of horns but they 

 grow around the tip of the tail : though commonly 

 called hairs, they are hard like strips of whalebone. 

 Shattock examined the microscopic structure of these 

 so-called hairs in 1896, and found them to be agglutina- 

 tions of hair-like structures such as compose the horns 

 of the rhinoceros. 



The long front horn of the rhinoceros is sometimes 

 fashioned into sticks to beat cattle and goats, and 

 occasionally it is made into clubs for Masai orators and 

 councillors. In the south-west of Kordofan the natives 

 have a tradition that anyone who drinks out of a cup 

 made from a rhinoceros horn never gets sick. In some 

 parts of the East such cups are supposed to neutralise 

 poisons poured into them. 



The Head of a Chameleon will) 

 three horns. (Natural History 

 Museum.) 



T -2 



