Mr. Burchell, during his travels in Africa, shot nine Rhinoceroses,
besides a smaller one. The latter he presented to the British Museum.
The animal is, however, becoming every day more and more scarce in
Southern Africa; indeed, it is rarely to be met with in some parts.
It appears that, in one day, two Rhinoceroses were shot by Speelman,
the faithful Hottentot who attended Mr. Burchell. He fired off his gun
but twice, and each time he killed a Rhinoceros! The animal's sense of
hearing is very quick: should he be disturbed, he sometimes becomes
furious, and pursues his enemy; and then, if once he gets sight of the
hunter, it is scarcely possible for him to escape, unless he possesses
extraordinary coolness and presence of mind. Yet, if he will quietly
wait till the enraged animal makes a run at him, and will then spring
suddenly on one side, to let it pass, he may gain time enough for
reloading his gun before the Rhinoceros gets sight of him again, which,
fortunately, owing to its imperfection of sight, it does slowly and with
difficulty.
Speelman, in shooting a large male Rhinoceros, used bullets cast with
an admixture of tin, to render them harder. They were flattened and
beat out of shape by striking against the bones, but those which were
found lodged in the fleshy parts had preserved their proper form, a fact
which shows how little the hardness of the creature's hide corresponds
with the vulgar opinion of its being impenetrable to a musket-ball.
Mr. Burchell found this Rhinoceros nearly cut up. On each side of the
carcase the Hottentots had made a fire to warm themselves; and round a
third fire were assembled at least twenty-four Bushmen, most of whom
were employed the whole night long in broiling, eating, and talking.
Their appetite seemed insatiable, for no sooner had they broiled and
eaten one slice of meat than they turned to the carcase and cut another.
The meat was excellent, and had much the taste of beef. "The tongue,"
says Mr. Burchell, "is a dainty treat, even for an epicure." The hide is
cut into strips, three feet or more in length, rounded to the thickness
of a man's finger, and tapering to the top. This is called a _shambok_,
and is universally used in the colony of the Cape for a horsewhip, and
is much more durable than the whips of European manufacture. The natural
food of the Rhinoceros, till the animal fled before the colonists, was a
pale, bushy shrub, called the Rhinoceros-bush, which burns while green
as freely as the driest fuel, so as readily to make a roadside fire.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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