OEDEE OP PACHYDEEMATA. 143 



sallies out at niglit, to eat the young boughs covered with leaves. 

 After feeding it wallows, covering itself with repeated layers of 

 mud, to preserve it from the sting of the gad-flies — its small 

 but troublesome enemies. When the mud is dry, it falls off, 

 exposing the animal to fresh attacks. To aUay the irritation 

 caused by these annoying insects, it rubs itself against the trunks 

 of trees, and during this operation it grumbles and grunts so 

 loudly that it betrays its place of retreat to the hunters, who 

 attack it and kill it by shooting arrows into its flank, the most 

 vital portion of its body, and in which a wound is certain to pro- 

 duce death. Other hunters, called in the language of the coimtry 

 agageer (ham or hock cutters, coupe-jarrets) , pursue on horseback 

 and kill the Rhinoceros with extraordinary courage and address. 

 Two men ride on the same horse. The one is dressed, and armed 

 with javelins ; the other is naked, and has nothing but a long sword 

 in his hand. The first sits on the saddle, the second rides behind 

 him on the horse's rump. Directly they have got on the track 

 of the quarry, they start ofl" in pursuit of it, taking care to keep 

 at a great distance from the Rhinoceros when it plunges into the 

 thickets, in the midst of which it opens for itself a broad passage, 

 which closes as the animal passes on, but the moment it arrives 

 in an open spot they pass it, and place themselves opposite to 

 it. The animal, in a rage, hesitates for a moment, then rushes 

 furiously upon the horse and its riders. These avoid the assault 

 by a quick movement to the right or the left, and the man 

 who carries the long sword lets himself slide oW on to the ground 

 without being perceived by the Rhinoceros, which takes alone 

 notice of the horse. Then the courageous hunter, with one blow 

 of his formidable Durandal, cuts through the tendon of the ham 

 or hock of one of the monster's hind legs, which causes it to fall 

 to the ground, when it is despatched with arrows and the sword. 

 The grandees of Abyssinia also engage in the pursuit of the Rhino- 

 ceros. But they attack these animals with guns. It is in this 

 way also that the Hottentots and the colonists of the Cape of Good 

 Hope hunt this Pachyderm. 



From late researches we are convinced that there are at least 

 six existing species of Rhinoceros — three in Asia and thi-ee in 

 Africa ; and they difi"er so much from each other that Dr. Gray has 

 referred them to four generic divisions, which are quite as distinct 



