OEDER OE PACHYDERMATA. 
143 
sallies out at night, 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 allay 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 
i attack it and kill it by shooting arrows into its flank, the most 
vital portion ofh-its body, and in which a wound is certain to pro- 
duce death. Other hunters, called in the language of the country 
agageer Qiam. or hock cutters, coupe-jar nets), pursue on horseback 
and kill tie Rhinoceros with extraordinary courage and address. 
; Two men ,rid*e on the same horse. The one is dressed, and armed 
with. javelins pfhe other is naked, and has nothing but a long sword 
in hisRand. 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 off in pursuit of it, taking care to keep 
i at a great distance^from the Rhinoceros when it plunges into the 
thickens, 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 off 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 
j 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 three in 
I Africa ; and they differ so much from each other that Dr. Gray has 
! referred them to four generic divisions, which are quite as distinct 
