THE MOUNT ELGON COUNTRY 
271 
Nevertheless we started and brilliantly blundered 
into some most diverting adventures. 
The first day’s march after crossing the Nzoia 
River was through scrub country and what we con¬ 
sidered high grass. The next day we struck real 
high grass! It was so deep that we had to burrow 
through it. Only the helmets of those on horseback 
marked where the caravan was passing. The long 
line of porters carrying their burdens were buried 
from view. It was a terrible place to meet a rhino 
and perhaps for that very reason we promptly pro¬ 
ceeded to meet one. 
We were riding ahead, followed by the cook and 
the tent boys, and behind them was the long string 
of a hundred or more porters, askaris, totos, and 
so forth. The end of the line was some hundred 
yards behind the head. Suddenly there was a wild 
cry of “faru!” (rhino). 
It was disconcerting, but after one or two hur¬ 
ried and flurried moments we got our heavy bat¬ 
teries in readiness and prepared to sell his life as 
cheaply as possible. But no rhino came. The grass 
was too deep to have seen him if he had come, but 
we thought it was well to have a reception commit¬ 
tee ready just the same. 
Then the rear ranks began to telescope into the 
front ranks. They came forward two or three 
jumps at a time. They were visibly perturbed, but 
presently they recovered enough to give expert tes¬ 
timony. 
A huge rhino had been in the grass by the trail 
