IX 



TRAVELS m EASTERN AFRICA 



381 



with rhinoceroses, and being accustomed to their mad 

 rush, was perfectly cool when charged by one. To this 

 coolness and temerity his accident was undoubtedly 

 due. Even when the rhinoceros was upon him, he 

 trusted to his agility, and hoped to leap to one side 

 and avoid the rush of the animal ; but he then noticed 

 that the thick bush would prevent such action ; so he 

 quickly changed his mind, and decided to fire. In 

 raising his gun to his shoulder, it caught in the branch 

 of a tree, and at that moment the nose of the rhinoc- 



IN Trouble with our Donkeys 



eros struck him in the stomach, and bore him to the 

 earth. Having thrown him down, the beast trampled 

 upon him, and struck him once with its nose and once 

 with its horn. 



Fortunately the horn was short, but it was long 

 enough to make a ghastly wound in Lieutenant von 

 Hohnel's thigh, and chip off a bit of the thigh-bone. 

 While he was lying under the beast, the men who 

 accompanied him seemed prostrated to such a degree 

 that they were unable to shoot. One man, however, 

 Herella, a Soudanese, who, upon the approach of the 

 rhinoceros, had nimbly climbed a cedar tree, shouted 



