WILD MAN AND WILD BEAST IN AFRICA 



13 



Photo by Cuninghame. Copyright by Charles Scribner's Sons 

 THE) HUMPBACKED CATTLE IN THE MASAI COUNTRY 



darkness set in. There was an element 

 of interest in going through that part of 

 Africa at night, because then all the wild 

 beasts were abroad. On the occasion in 

 question we were accompanied on one 

 side by a lion for one-half an hour. I do 

 not think he could quite make us out. He 

 could smell the dead lioness and he also 

 smelt us ; but I do not think he knew quite 

 what had happened ; and so he walked 

 alongside us for a couple of miles, moan- 

 ing or yawning as he went. Of course 

 we had to keep a lookout for him. I had 

 another white man with me, and either 

 he would go ahead and I behind, or vice 

 versa, so as to keep the porters closed 

 up ; because, in a case like that, if a lion 

 does attack a party of travelers, he is 

 most likely to seize the one behind. We 

 still had the lion on one side of us when 

 suddenly on the other side there was a 

 succession of snorts like a steam-engine 

 blowing off steam. It was a rhinoceros, 

 I think two rhinoceroses, up on that side. 



While a rhinoceros's short suit is 

 brains, his long suit is courage, and he 

 is a particularly exasperating creature to 

 deal with, because he has not sense 

 enough to know that you can harm him, 

 and he has enough bad temper to want to 

 harm you, so that there is often no way 

 of keeping rid of him except by killing 

 him. Of course we did not want to kill 

 anything we could help — anything we did 

 not use — and we still more strongly ob- 

 jected to being killed ourselves. It was 

 almost pitch dark and there was no moon, 

 although there was star-light. We would 

 hear this rhinoceros snort, and then we 

 would run forward and kneel down or 

 lay down on the ground and try to catch 

 the loom of the rhinoceros against the 

 sky-line, so that we would have a chance 

 to shoot him if he came on. I sometimes 

 had to adjure the porters — I use a mild 

 word when I say "adjure" — in order that 

 they might not break and scatter, when 

 one or more would probably have been 



