A RHINOCEROS UNPLEASANTLY OBTRUSIVE. 147 



mind were far from occupied with thoughts of how he 

 could find me something to kill to-day. The neglected 

 Abd-el-Khadr, however, was not forgetful of him, and 

 though for some time Essafi listlessly followed a fresh 

 rhinoceros track we soon came upon, a broken twig, so- 

 moist that it must have very recently been in the animal's 

 jaws, was all that was required to make my impetuous 

 hunter himself again, and thoughts of the past and future 

 were at once merged in the present. The rhinoceros 

 was very quickly found, but as he was facing us, and 

 the trees were so dense that we could not stalk round 

 him, he got away probably more frightened than hurt 

 by the only shot I was able to fire at him. Later in 

 the day we came unexpectedly on another to our right, 

 not more than ten yards off, and seeing us first of all, 

 he made us acquainted with his presence by charging 

 straight at us. Fortunately the discharge of my smooth- 

 bore when he was unpleasantly close (for owing to the 

 thickness of the covert I could not instantly get my gun 

 to my shoulder) turned his course a little, and in a 

 moment he was again lost to view. 



On my return in the evening, Albert, having cooled 

 down, received some wholesome advice about restraining 

 his temper, and not striking the Arabs as he had done. 

 He stoutly maintained that he could not consider him- 

 self wrong in striking Essafi under the circumstances, 

 for the Greeks looked upon these people very differently 



L 2 



