THE RHINOCEROS 



last I heard of him was that he had entirely recov- 

 ered. 



The victim is not always so fortunate. The rhi- 

 noceros, after having tossed him up in the air and left 

 him lying on the ground, often returns to renew the 

 attack. I had many narrow escapes, and often came 

 within an inch of losing my Hfe, yet always got off safely, 

 although sometimes with a bad scare. My first meet- 

 ing with the "e'munj" of the Masai occurred towards 

 evening on the steppe. A patch of thorn-bushes had 

 been set on fire during the day, and the ground was black 

 with their ashes. Never shall I forget the impression 

 made upon me by the dark form of the bulky animal 

 standing on the black ground in the light of the setting 

 sun. With head erect — for it had scented our ap- 

 proach — it stood there as if planted in the earth. I 

 was only partially covered by a half -burned bush, and 

 my hand was far from steady when I fired my large- 

 caliber rifle at the rhinoceros, which was only three 

 hundred feet away. The "pharu" answered the shot 

 by a quick charge. I heard the grunting and snorting, 

 of the animal close in front of me. Mechanically, I fired 

 a second shot, and the large beast turned, fortunately 

 for me, and ran away, pufiing and panting, to the left. 

 I was completely nonplussed. That the clumsy and slow 

 animal of our zoological gardens could develop such ex- 

 traordinary agility and speed was a revelation to me ; ev- 

 erything was so different from what I had expected it to be. 



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