206 TWO-HORNED RHINOCEROS. 



owes his death, and never escapes if there is so 

 much plain as to enable the horse to get before him. 

 His pride and fury, then, make him lay aside all 

 thoughts of escaping, but by victory over his 

 enemy. He stands for a moment at bay, then, 

 at a start, runs straight forward at the horse, like 

 the wild boar, whom, in his manner of action, he 

 very much resembles. The horse easily avoids 

 him, by turning short to aside; and this is the fa- 

 tal instant : the naked man, with the sword, drops 

 from behind the principal horseman, and, unseen 

 by the Rhinoceros, who is seeking his enemy, the 

 horse, he gives him a stroke across the tendon of 

 the heel, which renders him incapable of further 

 flio-ht or resistance. 



ic In speaking of the great quantity of food ne- 

 cessary to support this enormous mass, we must 

 likewise consider the vast quantity of water which 

 he needs. No country but that of the Shangalla, 

 which he possesses, deluged with six months' rain, 

 and full of large and deep basons, made in the 

 living rock, and shaded by dark woods from eva- 

 poration, or watered by large and deep rivers, 

 which never fall low or to a state of dryness, can 

 supply the vast draughts of this monstrous crea- 

 ture: but it is not for drinking alone that he fre- 

 quents wet and marshy places; large, fierce, and 

 strong as he is, he must submit to prepare himself 

 against the weakest of all adversaries. The great 

 consumption he constantly makes of food and 

 water necessarily confine him to certain limited 

 spaces ; for it is not every place that can maintain 



