ss for the strongest
black coffee, which, instead of drinking, like the natives, in minute
cups, he swallowed wholesale in large basins several times a day; this
was actual poison with his complaint, and he was completely ruined in
health. At this time his old companion, Johann Schmidt, the carpenter,
arrived, having undertaken a contract to provide for the Italian
Zoological Gardens a number of animals. I therefore proposed that the
two old friends should continue together, while I would hunt by myself,
with the aggageers, toward the east and south. This arrangement was
agreed to, and we parted.

Our camels returned from Geera with corn, accompanied by an Abyssinian
hunter, who was declared by Abou Do to be a good man and dexterous with
the sword. We accordingly moved our camp, said adieu to Florian and
Johann, and penetrated still deeper into the country of the Bas-e.

Our course lay, as usual, along the banks of the river. We decided to
encamp at a spot known to the Arabs as Deladilla. This was the forest
upon the margin of the river where I had first shot the bull elephant
when the aggageers fought with him upon foot. I resolved to fire the
entire country on the following day, and to push still farther up the
course of the Settite to the foot of the mountains, and to return to
this camp in about a fortnight, by which time the animals that had
been scared away by the fire would have returned. Accordingly, on the
following morning, accompanied by a few of the aggageers, I started
upon the south bank of the river, and rode for some distance into the
interior, to the ground that was entirely covered with high withered
grass. We were passing through a mass of kittar and thorn-bush, almost
hidden by the immensely high grass, when, as I was ahead of the party,
I came suddenly upon the tracks of rhinoceroses. These were so
unmistakably recent that I felt sure we were not far from the animals
themselves. As I had wished to fire the grass, I was accompanied by my
Tokrooris and my horse-keeper, Mahomet No. 2. It was difficult ground
for the men, and still more unfavorable for the horses, as large
disjointed masses of stone were concealed in the high grass.

We were just speculating as to the position of the rhinoceros, and
thinking how uncommonly unpleasant it would be should he obtain our
wind, when whiff! whiff! whiff! We heard the sharp whistling snort, with
a tremendous rush through the high grass and thorns close to us,