THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
55i 
ther experiments, is related by a traveller. While hunting, a kaffir used his 
opportunity to jump upon the back of a rhinoceros. The creature, mad from 
so unaccustomed a burden, ran wildly but swiftly and every moment bore the 
rider further and further from hope of relief. To tumble off was fatal, for then 
the rhinoceros would charge upon him; to stay on was not only uncomfortable 
and dangerous, but was rapidly growing impossible. Finally the native took 
off his blanket and threw it upon a bush in front of the rhinoceros. Seeming 
now to *have discovered its tormentor, the animal charged into the blanket 
while the kaffir slipped off and beat a hasty retreat. In a case where there 
was a double charge, the shooting of one seemed only to further infuriate the 
other which charged and charged again, until it fell a victim to its own invinci¬ 
ble courage. On another occasion a surprised hunter was twice knocked 
down, and 
owed his final 
escape to the 
contemptuous 
magnanimity 
of the rhino¬ 
ceros. The 
rhinoc eros 
and hunter 
coming sud¬ 
denly upon 
each other, the 
animal was 
ready but the 
hunter was 
not. The crea¬ 
ture charged 
so fiercely as 
to carry the 
jnan off his 
feet, while it 
passed clear 
over him and 
dug its horns keitroa, or brack rhinoceros. 
into the 
ground. But before the hunter could scramble up the rhinoceros recovered itself 
and charged again, this time ripping the flesh the full length of the hunter’s leg. 
Having thus avenged its wounded honor, the creature stalked away with the 
greatest indifference to the recent object of its wrath. 
The gladiatorial shows are best known to us through the extravagant 
public spectacles provided by Roman politicians, as we rarely think of the 
Spanish bull-fights in the same light. But among the barbarian natives of 
Asia, and specially of Africa, the value of human prowess leads to frequent 
royal amusements of this kind. Seated in an amphitheatre, carefully protected 
against the intrusion of the animals in the arena, the savage monarch, his 
courtiers and attendants, watch the contests between all kinds of pugnacious 
animals. At one time two ugly-tempered rhinoceroses will be irritated to 
