THE RHINOCEROS 



way, now that, in search for what had alarmed him. 

 We sank out of sight and lay low, fully expecting 

 that the brute would make off. 



For just twenty-five minutes by the watch that 

 rhinoceros looked and looked deliberately in all 

 directions while we lay hidden waiting for him to get 

 over it. Sometimes he would start off quite con- 

 fidently for fifty or sixty yards, so that we thought at 

 last we were rid of him, but alv/ays he returned to the 

 exact spot where we had first seen him, there to 

 stamp, and blow. The buffalo paid no attention to 

 these manifestations. I suppose everybody in jun- 

 gleland is accustomed to rhinoceros bad temper 

 over nothing. Twice he came in our direction, but 

 both times gave it up after advancing twenty- 

 five yards or so. We lay flat on our faces, the 

 vertical sun slowly roasting us, and cursed that 

 rhino. 



Now the significance of this incident is twofold: 

 first, the fact that, instead of rushing off at the first 

 intimation of our presence, as would the average 

 rhino, he went methodically to work to find us; 

 second, that he displayed such remarkable per- 

 severance as to keep at it nearly a half hour. This 

 was a spirit quite at variance with that finding its 

 expression in the blind rush or in the sudden pas- 

 sionate attack. From that point of view it seems 



309 



