THE TWO-HOENED RHINOCEROS. IIQ 



and pain which follow, occasion him to rub him- 

 self in those parts against the roughest trees ; and 

 this is one cause of the numerous pustules or tuber- 

 cles that we see upon him. 



He enjoys so much the rubbing himself, that he 

 groans and grunts so loud during tliis action, as to 

 be heard at a considerable distance. The pleasure 

 he receives from tliis employment, and the darkness 

 of the night, deprive him of his usual vigilance 

 and attention. The hunters, guided by his noise, 

 steal secretly upon him ; and while lyino;' on the 

 gTound, wound him with their javelins ; mostly in 

 the belly, wliere the wound is mortal. 



It is by no means true that the skin of this Rhi- 

 noceros, as it has been often represented, is hard 

 or impenetrable like a board. In his wild state he 

 is slain by javelins thrown from the hand, some 

 of which enter his body to a great depth. A mus- 

 ket-shot will go through him, unless interrupted by 

 a bone ; and the Shangalla, an Abvssinian tribe, 

 kill him by the clumsiest arrows that ever were 

 used by any people practising that weapon, and 

 cut him to pieces afterwards with the very worst of 

 knives. 



In order to afford some idea of the enormous 

 strength of the Kliinoceros, even aficr beinj>: se- 

 verely wounded, I shall quote Mr. Bruce's account 

 of the hunting of this animal in Abyssinia : " We 

 were on horseback (says this gentleman) by the 

 dawn of day, in search of the Kliinoceros, many of 

 which we had heard making a very deep groan and 

 cry as the morning approached ; several of the 



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