-* Rhinoceroses 



contrast to their usual timidity and cautiousness is the 

 way in which at night they seem to put ofT all fear of 

 men. I had been obliged to encamp in a hollow thickly 

 grown with thorn-bushes, and my men, being tired out, 

 had sunk to sleep after their evening meal. Suddenly 

 during the night I was awakened by one of my boys 

 with the warning: " Bwana, tembo ! " whispered excitedly 

 in my ear, while at the same moment several of my 

 men rushed into my tent to tell me the same thing 

 that an elephant was somewhere about. I sprang up, 



ACACIA VELT 



seized one of my rifles, -and made ready for the supposed 

 elephant, when in came a number of other carriers, wild 

 with excitement, and pointing frantically out of the tent 

 towards a great dark object about forty paces away. In 

 the motionless mass standing there like a great shapeless 

 rock I at once recognised a rhinoceros. There he stood 

 among the small tents of my men, clearly astounded at 

 finding his wonted feeding-place full of men. Within a few 

 seconds almost all my carriers had sought shelter behind 

 me, and 1 could not help feeling pleased at the wonderful 

 VOL. i. 241 16 



