IX 



TRAVELS IN EASTERN AERICA 



389 



opposite bank of the river (at that point wide and 

 shallow) the fierce snort of a rhinoceros was heard, 

 and soon my camp was a scene of the wildest confu- 

 sion : men, crying to their far-off mothers for help, 

 stumbled over one another in their frantic efforts to 

 get behind or up trees. Although I had my rifle in 

 hand, I was unable to shoot, through fear of winging 

 some of my scampering porters. The rhinoceros did 

 not charge through and at once leave the camp ; not 

 he ; stamping on one of the camp-fires seemed to 

 amuse him. Having satisfied his curiosity, or what- 

 ever else prompted him to pay us this nocturnal visit, 

 he moved on with a snort, and disappeared in the 

 bush. 



Not only did the country seem to abound with 

 rhinoceroses, but lions also claimed the place as their 

 habitat. The latter, however, gave us no trouble, 

 much to my disappointment, as I had longed to get 

 a fair shot at one. 



On one occasion I saw three very large and beau- 

 tifully maned lions stalk into a growth of bush about 

 200 yards from where I stood, but I was unwilling to 

 stop the caravan in order to pursue them. On an- 

 other occasion we were encamped upon a perfectly 

 bare spot (fifty or sixty acres in extent), and the 

 ground, covered with sulphate of magnesium, gleamed 

 white in the starlight. I was sitting up in a chair one 

 night while at this camp, watching Lieutenant von 

 Hohnel, who at the time seemed very low and suffer- 

 ing a great deal, when I heard one of the Soudanese 

 night-watch fluently blaspheming in Arabic. I shouted 

 to him, and inquired the cause of his strange oaths ; 



