142 LIFE WITH THE HAMRAN ARABS. 



upon as a great prize by Essafi and his friends, and 

 as I laid claim to none in consequence of the length 

 of time that had elapsed since I shot the crocodile, 

 they were equally divided amongst them, excepting the 

 odd one, which I broke out of curiosity. 



We have recently found out another party of Ham- 

 ran Arab hunters encamped near us, and we are on the 

 most friendly terms with them, though, if the truth were 

 known, w r e probably do them an infinity of harm by 

 driving the big game away from their neighbourhood. 

 These men devote themselves entirely to rhinoceros 

 trapping, and to-day Essafi pointed me out four places 

 where traps were set. Upon two of them he accident- 

 ally stepped, but so lightly that he only disturbed the 

 surface earth, and this he carefully re-arranged with a 

 stick, for the rhinoceros Is supposed to be so wary that 

 it will not tread upon ground over which it can sniff the 

 passage of a human being. Cunning as the rhinoceros 

 is in the opinion of these hunters, they consider the 

 elephant far more so, and say that it will even turn back 

 when on its way to drink sooner than continue in a path 

 that has been even crossed the same day by a human 

 being, and that it will never follow the same path twice 

 in succession. It is therefore very difficult for the Arabs 

 to know where best to dig pits for them to fall into. 

 In cunning these animals must find some good competi- 

 tors nevertheless in their hunters, and as an example of 



