Ill 
CAMPING AT MOUNT KENIA 
75 
and I was much amused by my men’s cautious efforts to drive 
it off, shouting and throwing stones at it from behind the 
shelter of trees. I am dead against shooting anything I do 
not want unless forced to do so in self-defence. The cow was 
very fat, and my men (I had several with me) carried away 
as much as they could stagger under. As we were all hungry 
I made a fire, while they skinned her, and we had a snack of 
toasted liver. Rhino liver is considered a great delicacy by 
Swahilis ; they say it is like fowl’s liver. 
Farther on we passed among five more rhino—two cows, 
each with a calf, and a bull—besides one or two more odd 
ones I had seen in the distance during the day. I also noticed 
some giraffe and a good many oryx, some Grant’s gazelle, and 
a few impala ; but there was nothing like the quantity of game in 
this direction as the other way, the veldt being drier.' We got 
somewhat out of our course going back, owing to my men insist¬ 
ing on keeping more to the right than I was steering, and my 
giving in to them in spite of my own strong opinion that I 
was right, as it proved I had been ; so that we struck our 
spruit a good deal too high up and did not reach camp till 
dusk. Altogether it had been a hard day ; for we had walked 
fast almost continuously from daylight till dark : a good thirty 
miles we must have covered, and under a very hot sun. As 
there were clearly no more elephants in the neighbourhood, I 
returned to my “ elephant camp ” at Mthara the next day, 
seeing several rhinos on the way. When within less than an 
hour’s walk of camp, I passed near one with a young calf 
lying in the open a little way to my left. I stood and looked 
at her, and, noticing she had a good horn, was considering 
whether to go and shoot her, as it was within easy reach of 
camp for sending to fetch the meat, but had not yet taken my 
• 577 double, which had been carried in its cover as I had no 
intention of shooting that day, when she got up and made 
straight for me. Laying my single .450 down in front of me, 
while my man hurriedly tore the other rifle out, I had just 
