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The Land of Footprints-Part32_Stewart Edward White(1873-1946)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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view it seems to me that the interest and significance of the

incident can hardly be overstated.



Four or five times we thought ourselves freed of the nuisance,

but always, just as we were about to move on, back he came, as



eager as ever to nose us out. Finally he gave it up, and, at a

slow trot, started to go away from there. And out of the three



hundred and sixty degrees of the circle where he might have gone

he selected just our direction. Note that this was downwind for



him, and that rhinoceroses usually escape upwind.

We laid very low, hoping that, as before, he would change his



mind as to direction. But now he was no longer looking, but

travelling. Nearer and nearer he came. We could see plainly his



little eyes, and hear the regular swish, swish, swish of his

thick legs brushing through the grass. The regularity of his trot



never varied, but to me lying there directly in his path, he

seemed to be coming on altogether too fast for comfort. From our



low level he looked as big as a barn. Memba Sasa touched me

lightly on the leg. I hated to shoot, but finally when he loomed



fairly over us I saw it must be now or never. If I allowed him to

come closer, he must indubitably catch the first movement of my



gun and so charge right on us before I would have time to deliver

even an ineffective shot. Therefore, most reluctantly, I placed



the ivory bead of the great Holland gun just to the point of his

shoulder and pulled the trigger. So close was he that as he



toppled forward I instinctively, though unnecessarily of course,

shrank back as though he might fall on me. Fortunately I had



picked my spot properly, and no second shot was necessary. He

fell just twenty-seven feet-nine yards -from where we lay!



The buffalo vanished into the blue. We were left with a dead

rhino, which we did not want, twelve miles from camp, and no



water. It was a hard hike back, but we made it finally, though

nearly perished from thirst.



This beast, be it noted, did not charge us at all, but I consider

him as one of the three undoubtedlyanimated by hostile



intentions. Of the others I can, at this moment, remember five

that might or might not have been actually and maliciously



charging when they were killed or dodged. I am no mind reader for

rhinoceros. Also I am willing to believe in their entirely



altruistic intentions. Only, if they want to get the practical

results of their said altruistic intentions they must really



refrain from coming straight at me nearer than twenty yards. It

has been stated that if one stands perfectly still until the



rhinoceros is just six feet away, and then jumps sideways, the

beast will pass him. I never happened to meet anybody who had



acted on this theory. I suppose that such exist: though I doubt

if any persistent exponent of the art is likely to exist long.



Personally I like my own method, and stoutly maintain that

within twenty yards it is up to the rhinoceros to begin to do the



dodging.

XXII. THE RHINOCEROS-(continued)



At first the traveller is pleased and curious over rhinoceros.

After he has seen and encountered eight or ten, he begins to look



upon them as an unmitigated nuisance. By the time he has done a

week in thick rhino-infested scrub he gets fairly to hating them.



They are bad enough in the open plains, where they can be seen and

avoided, but in the tall grass or the scrub they are a continuous



anxiety. No cover seems small enough to reveal them. Often they

will stand or lie absolutely immobile until you are within a very



short distance, and then will outrageously break out. They are,

in spite of their clumsy build, as quick and active as polo



ponies, and are the only beasts I know of capable of leaping into

full speed ahead from a recumbent position. In thorn scrub they



are the worst, for there, no matter how alert the traveller may

hold himself, he is likely to come around a bush smack on one.



And a dozen times a day the throat-stopping, abrupt crash and

smash to right or left brings him up all standing, his heart



racing, the blood pounding through his veins. It is jumpy work,

and is very hard on the temper. In the natural reaction from



being startled into fits one snaps back to profanity. The

cumulative effects of the epithets hurled after a departing and



inconsiderately hasty rhinoceros may have done something toward

ruining the temper of the species. It does not matter whether or



not the individual beast proves dangerous; he is inevitably most

startling. I have come in at night with my eyes fairly aching



from spying for rhinos during a day's journey through high grass.




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