180 HUNTING IN THE SOTIK [ch. viii 
sending in a messenger to bring Cuninghame, Heller, 
and an ox-waggon to the carcasses. 
The stomach of this rhino contained some grass stems 
and blades, some leaves and twig tips of bushes, but 
chiefly the thick, thorny, fleshy leaves of a kind of 
Euphorbia. As the juice of the euphorbia’s cactus-like 
leaves is acrid enough to blister—not to speak of the 
thorns—this suffices to show what a rhino’s palate 
regards as agreeably stimulating. This species of rhino, 
by the way, affords a curious illustration of how blind 
many men who live much of their lives outdoors may 
be to facts which stare them in the face. For years 
most South African hunters, and most naturalists, 
believed in the existence of two species of prehensile¬ 
lipped, or so-called “ black,” rhinoceros: one with the 
front horn much the longer, one with the rear horn at 
least equal to the front. It was Selous, a singularly 
clear-sighted and keen observer, who first proved con¬ 
clusively that the difference was purely imaginary. 
Now, the curious thing is that these experienced 
hunters usually attributed entirely different tempera¬ 
ments to these two imaginary species. The first kind, 
that with the long front horn, they described as a 
miracle of dangerous ferocity, and the second as com¬ 
paratively mild and inoffensive; and these veterans 
(Drummond is an instance) persuaded themselves that 
this was true, although they were writing in each case 
of identically the same animal! 
After leaving the dead rhinos we rode for several 
miles, over a plain dotted with game, and took our 
lunch at the foot of a big range of hills, by a rapid little 
brook, running under a fringe of shady thorns. Then 
we rode back to camp. Lines of zebras filed past on the 
horizon. Ostriches fled while we were yet far off. 
