492 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



that had trodden them for ages. The elephants had been 

 the chief road makers; but the rhinoceros had travelled 

 their trails, and also buffalo and buck. 



There were elephant about, but only cows and calves, 

 and an occasional bull with very small tusks. Of rhinoceros, 

 all square-mouthed, we saw nine, none carrying horns which 

 made them worth shooting. The first one I saw was in 

 long grass. My attention was attracted by a row of white 

 objects moving at some speed through the top of the grass. 

 It took a second look before I made out that they were 

 cow-herons perched on the back of a rhino. This proved 

 to be a bull, which joined a cow and a calf. None had 

 decent horns, and we plodded on. Soon we came to the 

 trail of two others, and after a couple of miles' tracking 

 Kongoni pointed to two gray bulks lying down under a tree. 

 I walked cautiously to within thirty yards. They heard 

 something, and up rose the two pig-like blinking creatures, 

 who gradually became aware of my presence, and re- 

 treated a few steps at a time, dull curiosity continually over- 

 coming an uneasiness which never grew into fear. Toss- 

 ing their stumpy-horned heads, and twisting their tails 

 into tight knots, they ambled briskly from side to side, 

 and were ten minutes in getting to a distance of a hundred 

 yards. Then our shenzi guide mentioned that there were 

 other rhinos close by, and we walked off to inspect them. 

 In three hundred yards we came on them, a cow and a 

 well-grown calf. Sixty yards from them was an ant-hill 

 with little trees on it. From this we looked at them until 

 some sound or other must have made them uneasy, for up 

 they got. The young one seemed to have rather keener 

 suspicions, although no more sense, than its mother, and 

 after a while grew so restless that it persuaded the cow to go 

 off with it. But the still air gave no hint of our where- 

 abouts, and they walked straight toward us. I did not 

 wish to have to shoot one, and so when they were within 

 thirty yards we raised a shout and away they cantered, 

 heads tossing and tails twisting. 



