ated; one passed in front
of us, stopped to drink in a pool, and then lay down in it. Not heeding
him, I walked up the hill, whilst the other rhinoceros, still trotting,
suddenly turned round and came to drink within fifty yards of us,
obstructing my path; this was too much of a joke; so, to save time, I
gave him a bullet, and knocked him over. To my surprise, the natives who
were with me would not touch his flesh, though pressed by me to "n'yam
n'yam," or to eat. I found that they considered him an unclean beast;
so, regretting I had wasted my bullet, I went farther on and startled
some buffaloes.

Though I got very near them, however, a small antelope springing up in
front of me scared them away, and I could not get a front shot at any
of them. Thus the whole day was thrown away, for I had to return
empty-handed.

24th to 30th.--Grant and I after this kept our pot boiling by shooting
three more antelopes; but nothing of consequence transpired until the
30th, when Bukhet, Mahamed's factotum, arrived with the greater part
of the Turk's property. He then confirmed a report we had heard before,
that, some days previously, Mahamed had ordered Bukhet to go ahead and
join us, which he attempted to do; but, on arrival at Panyoro, his
party had a row with the villagers, and lost their property. Bukhet then
returned to Mahamed and reported his defeat and losses; upon hearing
which, Mahamed at once said to him, "What do you mean by returning to
me empty-handed? go back at once and recover your things else how can I
make my report at Gondokoro?" With these peremptory orders Bukhet went
back to Panyoro, and commenced to attack it. The contest did not last
long; for, after three of Bukhet's men had been wounded, he set fire to
the villages, killed fifteen of the natives, and, besides recovering his
own lost property, took one hundred cows.

31st.--To-day Mahamed came in, and commenced to arrange for the march
onwards. This, however, was no easy matter, for the Turks alone required
six hundred porters--half that number to carry their ivory, and the
other half to carry their beds and bedding; whilst from fifty to sixty
men was the most a village had to spare, and all the village chiefs were
at enmity with one another. The plan adopted by Mahamed was, to summon
the heads of all the villages to come to him, failing which, he would
seize all their belongings. Then, having once got them together, he
ordered them all to furnish him wit