TWO DIANAS IN SOMALILAND 129 
munching sound betrayed the occupation of our 
prey. 
Aching all over, I silently crept on. In the stillness 
I could more plainly hear the crunching of the thorns 
as they made a meal for the great pachyderm. But I 
saw nothing, and how I was to penetrate the wait-a-bit 
with any degree of safety I could not see. Few people 
would care to meet a rhinoceros at such disadvantage, 
and I had to add to other drawbacks the fact that I 
had for safety’s sake to let the hammers of my rifle 
down ere negotiating such dense undergrowth. It 
would be highly dangerous to proceed with the rifle 
cocked, but I wanted it very much cocked indeed on 
my first introduction to so vast and important an 
animal. The thing was to circumvent the wood — if I 
may call the place by so home-like a word — and on 
reaching one spot where the thorn grew sparser, I 
decided to penetrate here. I could not bear to leave 
it longer, and could not wait all day ; besides, I prefer 
to meet a rhino in some place where there is a pre- 
tence at cover anyway to trying conclusions with him 
in a patch of conspicuously open ground. 
My men showed no sign of fear, and following me 
came on as carefully and steadily as ever. Both were 
armed, inadequately it is to be feared, but the onus of 
the business was to fall, presumably, on me. At last ! 
In one dazzling minute of surprise I saw the huge 
lumbering bulk we know as the rhinoceros. I have a 
bowing acquaintance with his relatives in many zoos, 
yet he seemed to me a stranger. Surely they never 
were so colossal, so mighty, so altogether awe-inspiring. 
1 
