CHAP. ii. RHINOCEROS. 129 



puffing sound natural to them when angry, till they abso- 

 lutely see him. When wounded, and occasionally when 

 much disturbed, their spoor consists of parallel straight 

 lines, so that it is next to impossible to overtake them 

 without being discovered, and giving them an opportunity 

 of charging you from one side. They will wait with the 

 utmost patience concealed in thick jungle, until you 

 almost touch them, and then rush out at you. When 

 they do catch an unfortunate being, they knock him down 

 and knead him with their feet, returning again and 

 again until nothing but a shapeless mass remains, uttering 

 all the day their shrill squeal of rage. This I once saw 

 myself. 



Four of us, consisting of myself, three native hunters, 

 and my gun-bearer, were on our way to join a native 

 hunting party some twelve miles off, and just after crossing 

 a small stream about half way we saw a flock of rhinoceros- 

 birds hovering over an ukaku thicket, and evidently 

 accompanying some game passing through it. The place 

 was of no great size, so two of the hunters ran round to 

 the further sides, while I and the remaining one went 

 into it, and in a few seconds struck the spoor of an 

 upetyane. I am thankful now to recollect that I at 

 once suggested leaving the vicious brute alone, partly 

 because it was such dangerous work, and its death would 

 do us no good, partly on account of the time it would 

 waste and the distance we had yet to go. However, the 

 hunter wanted to go after it, and to have said more would 

 have implied fear on my part, a thing one has to guard 

 against when, being the only white man amongst natives far 

 in the interior, one's comfort, and not impossibly one's life, 



I 



