186 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



described as capable of turning bullets even 

 at short range, and it may be that these fables 

 date from the days of primitive guns and in- 

 sufficient charges of powder, which may have 

 had no more effect on these thick-skinned 

 animals than a peashooter on a pig. Modern 

 ammunition, however, makes short work of 

 the rhinoceros ; moreover, apart from such 

 vulnerability, we must remember that its hide 

 cannot even withstand the attacks of the tsetse- 

 fly, which feeds greedily on its blood. It is, 

 nevertheless, an immensely powerful animal, 

 and few others are so hard to kill ; for it dies so 

 slowly that very often, when one is seemingly 

 dead from spear or bullet wounds, it will rally 

 and either charge the enemy or gallop away 

 out of reach. The rhinoceros is said to be 

 irresistibly attracted by fire. A creature of 

 such bulk hardly seems comparable to a moth 

 flying into the candle-flame, but it is a fact 

 that, attracted in some unaccountable fashion, 

 the rhinoceros sometimes charges right into a 

 camp fire. Elephants have a similar habit of 

 trampling on fires, with the result that they 

 occasionally spread the embers, and have even 

 been known in this way to set fire to native 

 villages. 



