Militant Cotton swell 351 



in it with such a foe is appalling. As the thorns are 

 placed in pairs on opposite sides of the branches, and 

 these turn round on being pressed against, one pair 

 brings the other exactly into the position in which it 

 must pierce the intruder. They cut like knives. Horses 

 dread this bush extremely ; indeed many of them refuse 

 to face its thorns." 



Livingstone also tells the story of Oswell's thrilling 

 adventure with a white rhinoceros which nearly cost the 

 daring hunter his life. But as Oswell himself has since 

 told the story far more graphically than Livingstone, 

 I will give it in his own words : 



"But the saddest of days was at hand. I had one 

 pre-eminently good horse, the very pick of all I ever 

 had in Africa fearless, fast, and most sweet-tempered. 

 Returning to camp one evening with a number of 

 Kafirs, tired and hungry, after a long day's spooring 

 elephants, which we never overtook, I saw a long-horned 

 mahoho (rhinoceros) standing close to the path. The 

 length of his horn and the hunger of my men induced 

 me to get off and fire at him. The shot was rather 

 too high, and he ran off. I was in the saddle in a 

 moment, and passing the wounded beast, pulled up 

 ten yards on one side of the line of his retreat, firing 

 the second barrel as he went by from my horse, when, 

 instead of continuing his course, he stopped short, and, 

 pausing an instant, began to walk deliberately towards 

 me. The movement was so utterly unlooked for, as the 

 white rhinoceros nearly always makes off, that, until he 

 was within five yards, I sat quite still, expecting him 

 to fall, thinking he was in his * flurry.' My horse seemed 



