THE HOME OF THE RHINO 
117 
ness. Their tails were up and they were snorting 
like steam engines. When the big one started 
toward me I fired and it fell like a log. The other 
one, instead of thundering away, according to ex¬ 
pectations, became more belligerent. It ran a few 
steps, then swung around, and I felt certain that it 
was going to avenge the death of its comrade. The 
camera brigade rushed forward, clapping their 
hands to scare it away, as there was no desire to kill 
both of the animals. But it refused to go. It would 
sometimes run a few steps, then it would turn 
and come toward us. It was evidently in a fighting 
mood, with no intention of deserting the field of 
action. Finally by firing shots in the air and yell¬ 
ing noisily it turned and dashed over the side of 
the hill. The photograph, taken at the instant the 
big rhino was struck, was remarkably dramatic and 
showed one rhino in an aggressive attitude and the 
other just plunging down from the shot of the big 
bullet. 
The front horn of the dead rhino was twenty and 
three-quarters inches long and in many places the 
animal’s hide was over an inch thick. Strips of this 
were cut off to make whips, and a large section was 
removed to be made into a table top. These table 
tops, polished and rendered translucent by the cur¬ 
ing processes, are beautiful as well as extremely in¬ 
teresting. The rhino’s tongue is even more delicious 
to eat than ox tongue and rhino tail soup is a great 
luxury on any white man’s table; while the native 
porters consider rhino meat the finest of any meat to 
