190 THE BONDS OF AFRICA 



my ribs. And then Elmi, who was carrying an 

 old Snider, let off his blunderbuss with a truly 

 deafening crack and a haze of smoke. I imagine 

 that the rhino received the leaden bullet, or else 

 got a very severe fright, for he gave a loud snort 

 and dashed past me into the bush. Elmi in 

 attempting to reload the Snider let the hammer 

 fall, and a bullet went singing past my head. 

 In disgust he gave the fearsome weapon to a 

 " pagazi," or porter, and off we went on the 

 spoor, Elmi unarmed. 



I changed my magazine, wound the rifle sling 

 around my arm, and anticipated a charge. But 

 there was very little blood spoor, and we soon 

 got in amongst some dense bushes growing on 

 sandy soil where rhinoceroses appeared to have 

 walked by the score. There was a perfect maze 

 of tracks. Elmi followed along the freshest. 

 A few minutes elapsed, and suddenly I saw him 

 stop dead. A low hiss, a snort, and a scuffle, 

 and up jumped another rhino from amongst the 

 bushes where the beast had been asleep. She 

 gambolled away at an ugly shuffling trot for a 

 few yards, when I hit her just behind the shoulder. 

 This checked her career for a moment, and I 

 followed it up with three or four more shots, one 

 of which must have found the brain, and suddenly 

 she rolled over and breathed her last. I sent 

 a messenger back to camp to get porters to 

 carry in the meat and trophies. Meanwhile I 

 ate a frugal lunch under the sorry shade of a thorn 

 bush, whilst the sun glared down on the great 

 carcase and myriads of flies buzzed around it. 

 In the afternoon the porters arrived, and I was 

 by no means sorry to move off to sweeter-smelling 

 pastures. 



Just before dusk, whilst stalking a gerenuk 



