large ant-hill, within ten feet of where I stood, and
charged directly at me. A t the time, I did not have
my rifle in my hands, and so I satisfied myself by
jumping to one side, and allowing the animal to pass
on. He charged straight at the portion of the caravan
just behind me. In a moment I had seized my
rifle, and sent shot after shot into his receding form.
As he neared the porters, they, having heard my
shots and being on their guard, received him with a
volley from their carbines. This, however, did not
turn him; he charged on and on, until finally slain
by Lieutenant von Hohnel’s body-guard, within ten
feet of his litter.
By this time, owing to the frequency and results
of these rhinoceros charges, the men were completely
demoralized. A t the crack of a twig or the cry of
a bird they would throw down their loads, and clamber
with agility into a bush. On several occasions
the porters detailed to bear Lieutenant von Hohnel,
allowed his litter to fall to the ground in their
eagerness to escape. A t night, our camp was filled
with murmurs; the men said a “ shaitan” (devil) was
evidently following the caravan, and would not be
appeased, until every one of us had been killed. I
could hear them say to one another that the presence
of a dying man like Lieutenant von Hohnel in a
caravan would certainly incur disaster; it was much
better to stop until he died; and then, perhaps, all
trouble would cease.
One night we were encamped near the river, and
all of us, with the exception of the two Soudanese
on guard, were sound asleep. Suddenly from the
opposite bank of the river (at that point wide and
shallow) the fierce snort of a rhinoceros was heard,
and soon my camp was a scene of the wildest confusion
: men, crying to their far-off mothers for help,
stumbled over one another in their frantic efforts to
get behind or up trees. Although I had my rifle in
hand, I was unable to shoot, through fear of winging
some of my scampering porters. The rhinoceros did
not charge through and at once leave the camp; not
he; stamping on one of the camp-fires seemed to
amuse him. Having satisfied his curiosity, or whatever
else prompted him to pay us this nocturnal visit,
he moved on with a snort, and disappeared in the
bush.
Not only did the country seem to abound with
rhinoceroses, but lions also claimed the place as their
habitat. The latter, however, gave us no trouble,
much to my disappointment, as I had longed to get
a fair shot at one.
On one occasion I saw three very large and beautifully
maned lions stalk into a growth of bush about
200 yards from where I stood, but I was unwilling to
stop the caravan in order to pursue them. On another
occasion we were encamped upon a perfectly
bare spot (fifty or sixty acres s'in extent), and the
ground, covered with sulphate of magnesium, gleamed
white in the starlight. I was sitting up in a chair one
night while at this camp, watching Lieutenant von
Hohnel, who at the time seemed very low and suffering
a great deal, when I heard one of the Soudanese
night-watch fluently blaspheming in Arabic. I shouted
to him, and inquired the cause of his strange oaths,