I FIRST EXPEDITION FROM MOMBASA 19 



short way off. Being bent on " biltong " for exchanging with 

 the natives for meal, etc., I thought it a pity to lose this 

 chance ; so I exchanged my single Metford, which it was then 

 my custom always to carry myself, for the double .577 ^vith 

 my gunbearer behind me and ran up to a little bush quite 

 near the rhino. 



Although very bad -sighted, these animals often seem 

 to get some inkling of one's proximity even when the wind 

 is right, either from the tick birds which generally accompany 

 them or, in their absence, by some other means — perhaps 

 hearing. This one knew I was there and began to shift 

 about uneasily ; but as soon as I got up to the bush which 

 screened my approach I took the first chance he gave me 

 of a side shot and before he had made up his mind to 

 decamp. He immediately executed what I call the rhino's 

 death-waltz — a performance they very commonly go through 

 on getting a fatal shot. It is a curious habit, this dying dance, 

 and consists in spinning round and round like a top in one 

 place with a rocking-horse motion before starting off at a 

 gallop, which generally is only a short one, to be arrested after 

 a hundred yards or so by death. I imagine the cause of this 

 strange evolution is the animal's endeavour to find out the 

 cause of the sudden wound it has received — much on the same 

 principle as a dog chases his tail when anything irritates that 

 organ. Mine passed close to me after his dance, but I felt 

 so sure he was done that I refrained from giving him the 

 second barrel. 



On another occasion, however, I lost a rhino through 

 placing faith in the " waltz " being a sign of immediately 

 impending death. I had given him a shot in about the right 

 place ; but as he was somewhat inclined diagonally towards 

 me, the bullet must have gone too far back. He waltzed 

 round several times with only an ant-heap, about as tall as a 

 man and not much broader, between me and him, he being on 

 one side of it while I dodged him, as his dance sometimes 



