SOUTH AFRICA FIFTY YEARS AGO 43 



(R. Simus), and of which we killed three and saw five, there 

 were three kinds the Mahoho, the ./?. Africanus, and the 

 R. Keitloa. 1 I say 'were,' for whilst I write I hear that the 

 dear old mahoho is extinct. I am very sorry. He was never, 

 I believe, found north of the Zambesi, but between that river 

 and the Molopo, of which we have just spoken, he was 

 formerly in great force. Poor old stupid fellow, too quiet 

 as a rule, though, when thoroughly upset (like a good- 

 natured man in a passion) reckless, he was just the very thing 

 for young gunners to try their 'prentice hand on, and directly 

 the Kafirs got muskets he was bound to go ; though, con- 

 sidering the numbers there used to be, I hoped he would have 

 lasted longer. He had no enemies to fear, save man and the 

 hyaena, and the first without fire-arms would have made but 

 little impression on him ; for, although sometimes taken in 

 the pitfalls, he was never, so far as I know, killed by spears. 

 The hysena, when hard pressed for food, would occasionally 

 attack the male, who is formed like the boar, and eat into his 

 bowels from behind ; but it was a long business, and not by 

 any means always successful. The 'Cape wolf must have 

 beep very hard set before he attempted it. 



I have seen these long-horned, square-nosed creatures in 



1 Another seems to have been evolved recently, if I may draw that inference 

 from a highly-coloured print I see in the shop-windows intituled : ' An African 

 rhinoceros hunt.' A gentleman, on a fiery rearing steed, is engaging the 

 enemy at very close quarters, and, unless he is a left-handed gunner, on the 

 impossible side, as he is riding in the same direction as his quarry, and at its 

 near shoulder. He may not be answerable for this position of affairs ; it looks 

 awkward, but he appears content, and holds his gun firmly by the middle, 

 muzzle in air. The rhinoceros is the interesting figure in the picture, for he is 

 mailed, like the Asiatic variety, and is either a late discovery, or an escaped 

 specimen from the travelling show of some African Wombwell. 



Rhinoceroses are puzzles to others besides artists. An old yeoman farmer, 

 many years ago, lay dying near my house ; to amuse him I sent some sketches 

 and odds and ends, and received a message thanking me, but putting me 

 straight as to those tiro-horned creatures being rhinoceroses ; the rhinoceros 

 had but one horn, he had seen it in a book, and it was no use my saying it had 

 two, for it hadn't. I suggested to him that we wanderers, who went far 

 afield for hunting and shooting, had a hand in making the books, but he 

 wouldn't have it, and died a firm believer in one horn. 



