WITH FLASH-LIGHT AND RIFLE 



My second encounter still further enlightened me as 

 to the nature of this massive and, except the elephant, 

 most powerful of the terrestrial mammals. Our cara- 

 van was progressing slowly, and I was riding ahead on 

 an ass — one of the few the tsetse-fly had not yet killed — 

 over the steppe, armed with a shotgun. Seeing a flock 

 of guinea-hens alighting in the distance, I dismounted 

 and worked my way through the high grass in the 

 direction of the birds, when an uncouth, bulky animal 

 suddenly rose before me out of the grass. I had enough 

 presence of mind left to throw myself fiat on the ground. 

 The animal came on in a rush, passed me at a foot's 

 length, broke through our caravan, and disappeared 

 from sight wrapped in a thick cloud of dust trailing be- 

 hind it. I now fully realized that I had had what the 

 Enghsh call "a narrow escape," and made up my mind 

 to be more cautious in future regarding this inscrutable 

 animal, which is apparently subject to sudden panics, 

 in which it is as likely to rush headlong towards the 

 hunter as away from him. 



On the same day I had an opportunity of seeing four 

 rhinoceroses, among them a female with a young one. 

 Shortly afterwards we crossed a well-trodden rhinoceros 

 path which led to a drinking-place among rocks, and I 

 determined to lie in wait for the animals. The rhinoc- 

 eros is nocturnal in its habits, eating and drinking dur- 

 ing the night and spending the day in sleep. 



On the high plateaus of the steppe the nights are 



124 



