IOO 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
“Meat?” exclaimed my men. “We’ve left an 
entire rhinoceros only just skinned, about 
twenty minutes ’ walk from this. Look, you 
can see the vultures gathering in the air.” 
“Vultures ? Yes, there are plenty of them ; but 
if you took the skin off, there’ll be no meat by 
the time we get there.” 
“ Not if you stop here talking,” my men 
replied. “ Run, and you will be in time to get 
something.” 
About twenty fellows started off in the 
direction pointed out by the hovering birds. In 
less than an hour the Abyssinians returned, with 
a report “that only the skeleton remained upon 
their arrival.” 
There is no animal which parts with its hide 
so easily as the rhinoceros. Directly that the fatal 
shot has been fired, the Arab hunters measure 
the body by so many spans, the thumb stretched 
from the little finger. The rhinoceros should 
yield eight large squares of hide, each of which 
will produce a circular shield about 2 feet in 
diameter, or rather larger. When the operation 
of skinning is commenced, it is curious to see 
the want of attachment between the hide and the 
flesh ; it detaches immediately, simply upon a 
few digs with the fist, and it flakes away like the 
bark of an oak when felled in May. Each square 
is worth 2 dollars, therefore a rhinoceros is a 
valuable prize to the Arab hunters. 
It is difficult to believe the rapidity with 
