XVI 
RHINOCEROS 
93 
The sure find for rhinoceros is in the neighbour¬ 
hood of a peculiar red-barked mimosa. This is the 
much-loved food, and the appearance of the bushes 
will immediately denote the presence of the animal; 
they are clipped, as though by pruning shears, 
all the shoots being cut off in a straight line where 
the rhinoceros has been browsing. This neat 
operation is effected by the prehensile lip and the 
shear-like teeth. Another proof of rhinoceros will 
be found in the vast piles of dung, nearly always 
against the stem of a considerable tree ; it is a 
peculiar custom of this animal to visit the same 
place every night, and this regularity of functions 
brings it into the traps which are cunningly devised 
by the natives for its capture. 
A round hole, the size of an ordinary hat-box, is 
dug near the tree. This is neatly formed, and 
when completed, it is covered with a wooden circle 
like the toy wheel of a child’s waggon. The spokes 
are made of flat bamboo, with sharp points over¬ 
lapping each other in the centre, in the place where 
the nave would be. This looks rather like a sieve 
when fitted carefully as a cover to the hole. If any 
person were to thrust his fist through this elastic 
substance, the points of the bamboo would prevent 
his hand from being withdrawn, as they would retain 
his arm. In the same manner this sieve-like cap 
would retain the leg of an animal, should it tread 
upon the surface and pass through. Accordingly a 
noose is laid upon the surface. The rope is con¬ 
structed specially, of great strength, and the end is 
