42 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
the shooting a rhinoceros was a matter of supreme indifference 
to me in those days, and walked to my own waggon. 
Next morning at breakfast my friend offered to show me 
where the rhinoceroses lived. I was quite meek now, and 
ready to be introduced to this entirely imaginary locality. At 
that time we had not to go far to find, and had hardly left the 
camp a quarter of an hour, when the leading Kafir pointed 
out a great ugly beast rubbing itself against a tree eighty yards 
from us. I was off my pony in a second, determined to get 
to close quarters as soon as, and if possible sooner than, my 
companion. We both stalked to within twenty yards without 
being seen, and knelt down, I with the stump of a small tree 
before me ; we fired together, and while the smoke still hung, 
I was aware of an angry and exceedingly plain-looking beast 
making straight at me through it. Luckily he had to come 
rather uphill to my stump, and his head was a little thrown 
back, when, within five feet of the muzzle of my gun, he fell, 
with a shot up his nostril, the powder blackening his already 
dingy face. This was a doridi (or sour-tempered one) ; as a 
rule, the only really troublesome fellow of his family. I 
remember thinking my first introduction promised a stormy 
acquaintance, and hoping there might be gentler specimens, 
who rather liked being shot, or at all events did not resent it so 
violently. I got two or three times into serious trouble with 
these lumbering creatures ; but the stories shall be told as 
they crop up. I may mention here, however, that success in 
rhinoceros shooting depends very greatly upon the sportsman’s 
kneeling or squatting. I lost many at first by firing from 
a standing position. The consequence was, that the ball only 
penetrated one lung, and with the other untouched the beast 
runs on for miles, unless, of course, the heart happen to be 
pierced ; whereas, fired from a lower level, the ball passes 
through both lungs, and brings him up in 100 or 200 yards. 
A rhinoceros very seldom drops to the shot. Of all I killed, 
but two fell dead in their tracks. Exclusive of the Quebaaba 
(R. Oswellit), which was probably a variety of the mahoho, 
se hI A eg eo 
