94 ON SAFAEI 



shooting a steinbuck on the way, when I saw two rhinos 

 a mile away. The country was fairly open, and before 

 I got up they had disappeared in some dry scrub. 

 There was, just inside this scrub, what I took to be a 

 low hillock, and which I purposed using for stalking. 

 But to this my gun-bearer, Sulimani, objected most 

 strongly. He said it was not a hillock, but rhinoceroses. 

 We crouched behind a little bush and waited, but not 

 for long. Hardly were we down before the group opened, 

 and I saw there were seven rhinos in a cluster.^ Two 

 came rushing in my direction, and at forty yards I fired 

 and dropped one, finding afterwards that the bullet had 

 splintered its nose, and I now have the huge splinter of 

 bone, 1 8 ins. long, with the horns mounted on it. 



" Leaving Sulimani to skin the beast, I went, with 

 one porter, after an oryx that I could see considerably 

 more than a mile away, but could not get anywhere 

 near it. I followed it nearly five miles, passing on the 

 way another rhino, that I marked in case I lost the 

 oryx. 



" On the way back I passed an immense herd of 

 eland, fully one hundred, and then returned to the rhino. 

 It was 120 yards away, with its back towards me. I sat 

 down in grass eighteen inches high and waited. After 

 ten minutes the rhino turned round and walked slowly 

 towards me, s;raziuo-. The man I had with me became 

 frightened, and after creeping for some distance through 

 the grass, jumped to his feet and ran. This aroused the 

 beast, for it lifted its head and looked after the man, 

 giving me the chance I wanted. I put a solid bullet in 

 the centre of its chest, about twelve inches up ; it took 

 two or three short quick steps and went down heavily, 

 head-first, its body slewing round as it fell. It made one 

 futile effort to rise, but did not succeed in even lifting 

 its head, and then lay motionless. I put in a second 

 shot to make sure, but might as well have fired at a 

 rock, as it did not move in any way. There seemed to 



^ As related in a subsequent chapter, the author on one occasion 

 came across a " hillock " of six rhinos in a cluster. 



