xcitement
over the burra janwar (great animal), was also of this opinion, and as
there was no longer any reason for silence, he chatted to me about many
strange and curious things until the grey dawn appeared. When we got
down from our perch, we found the track of the wounded rhino clearly
marked by great splashes of blood, and for a couple of miles the spoor
could thus be easily followed. At length, however, it got fainter and
fainter, and finally ceased altogether, so that we had to abandon the
search; the ground round about was rocky, and there was no possibility
of telling which way our quarry had gone. I was exceedingly sorry for
this, as I did not like to leave him wounded; but there was no help for
it, so we struck out for home and arrived at Tsavo in the afternoon
very tired, hungry and disappointed.

Rhinos are extraordinary animals, and not in any way to be depended
upon. One day they will sheer off on meeting a human being and make no
attempt to attack; the next day, for no apparent reason, they may
execute a most determined charge. I was told for a fact by an official
who had been long in the country that on one occasion while a gang of
twenty-one slaves, chained neck to neck as was the custom, was being
smuggled down to the coast and was proceeding in Indian file along a
narrow path, a rhinoceros suddenly charged out at right angles to them,
impaled the centre man on its horns and broke the necks of the
remainder of the party by the suddenness of his rush. These huge beasts
have a very keen sense of smell, but equally indifferent eyesight, and
it is said that if a hunter will only stand perfectly still on meeting
a rhino, it will pass him by without attempting to molest him. I feel
bound to add, however, that I have so far failed to come across anybody
who has actually tried the experiment. On the other hand, I have met
one or two men who have been tossed on the horns of these animals, and
they described it as a very painful proceeding. It generally means
being a cripple for life, if one even succeeds in escaping death. Mr.
B. Eastwood, the chief accountant of the Uganda Railway, once gave me a
graphic description of his marvellous escape from an infuriated rhino.
He was on leave at the time on a hunting expedition in the
neighbourhood of Lake Baringo, about eighty miles north of the railway
from Nakuru, and had shot and apparently killed a rhino. On walking up
to it, however, the brute rose to its feet and