The red book of animal stories/The Ugliest Beast in the World
THE UGLIEST BEAST IN THE WORLD
Most people would agree, if they were asked to vote, that the ugliest and clumsiest of all animals is the rhinoceros. Even the hippopotamus shines by comparison, frightful though it is, because, for one reason, it is a water beast, and a water beast can never manage to look so nasty as a land one.
To begin with, the rhinoceros' shape is heavy and awkward, and the horn, right in the middle of its face, does not add to its beauty. Then its eyes, instead of being large and soft, as they so often are in a wild animal, look mean and small, though they are several times the size of those of a man. But, worst of all, its skin is hard and hairless, and looks as if it would come off in scales. Oh, there is no doubt that a rhinoceros is a very ugly beast indeed!
The tribe is divided broadly into two kinds, and is now seldom seen north of the Zambesi river. The white rhinoceros, who must look even more unwholesome than her black fellow, is timid, gentle, and fat, and eats nothing but grass. The black rhinoceros is thin, fierce, and very cautious; but both alike take care never to stray more than seven or eight miles from a river, as they cannot go for months without water, like the eland and some kinds of gazelles.
But whatever we may think of them, even rhinoceroses are not without their friends and admirers; and chief among these are a race of birds, which are never happy unless they are sitting on their broad backs. If by any chance the bird misses its rhinoceros, while the great creature is feeding, as he always does at night, it will call until the clumsy form appears in the first rays of the dawn. The bird also keeps a sharp look-out for any possible danger ahead, for though the rhinoceros's ears are very sharp, his eyes are not, so it is lucky for him that there is somebody at hand who can make up for his deficiencies. In fact, so closely are both bound up together, that when the Bechuanas wish to describe a person they cannot do without, they call him 'my rhinoceros.'
The black rhinoceros is smaller than the white, and, in spite of his heavy body, can run faster than a horse. He is given to sudden fits of passion, nobody knows what for, and then he will burst out into loud snorts, and dash at the nearest bushes with his horn, sometimes digging for hours at the ground round the roots, till he has pulled them up and worked off his bad temper both at once. Perhaps his favourite food, the branches of the tree called the 'wait-a-bit' thorn, which grows to the height of twenty feet, may be irritating. Unlike other animals, the two horns of the rhinoceros do not grow into the skull, but are attached to the skin, one behind the other, and when the animal is dead can easily be taken off with a knife. Rhinoceroses are dirty creatures and love to roll in mud, as their skins constantly show. They stand or lie about in the shade all day long, and in the evening steal out somewhere between nine and twelve to the nearest fountain, and after they have drunk their fill, they go for a long walk. It is very funny to see them taking out their young. The little rhinoceros always walks in front, and if the mother gets the scent of an enemy, they both break into a sharp trot, and the mother guides her child by keeping her horn against its side, and pressing it in the direction she wishes to go. In the case of a white rhinoceros, this horn is about three feet long, but that of its black cousin is much smaller.
Fifty or sixty years ago, rhinoceroses were a great deal more common in the South of Africa than they are at present, as they have been forced by hunters further and further north. The natives used to chase them with stones and assegais, and so hungry or greedy were they, that even a dinner of the beast's tough flesh was acceptable. Like all animals with hoofs, the rhinoceros feeds on bushes and plants, but this does not prevent his being very fierce when attacked, or from trampling under his great feet anything or anybody that happens to cross his path.
The Namaquas are very cruel in their manner of hunting the rhinoceros, but when once the animal is wounded, and they think it can safely be approached, they try, if possible, to climb on its back, and to thrust a lance into a fatal spot behind the shoulder.
One day a man had just succeeded in getting on to a wounded black rhinoceros above its tail, when the creature started up with a roar, scattering its enemies, who fled for shelter behind a tree. But the tree was not large enough to hide them all, and in a moment the rhinoceros was rushing towards them, tearing up the ground with its horns. The men sped away in all directions, till one of them, getting angry, stopped, and looking the rhinoceros full in the face, called it by an ugly name. The rhinoceros, surprised at this behaviour, stopped too, and stared at the Namaqua, who, gaining courage, became still more abusive. His words seemed to have a power that all the stones had lacked, for the animal turned round and began to beat a retreat, when the Namaqua seizing its tail, sprang on its back, and aimed a deadly blow on its shoulder.
It is wonderful how well the men can aim with their assegais, which are light-throwing spears, with long iron heads. Some bushmen, going on a hunting expedition in their own country, found the fresh trail of two rhinoceroses, and at once set about making their preparations. They first built up a rough stone hut near the place, where one of the men could lie hidden, with two assegais at
HOW THE NAMAQUAS HUNT THE RHINOCEROS
hand, while the other went off in search of the animals. After 'becreeping' them, as it is called in that district, for some distance, the bushman saw two clumsy forms lying asleep under a grove of trees, which proved to be a young rhinoceros and its mother. He threw a stone to wake them, and when they jumped up in a rage, he threw a second. The mother looked round to see who the rude person could be that was disturbing her midday nap, and perceiving the bushman, made a dash for him. He had barely time to rush to the nearest tree, and had hardly begun to climb it, when the enraged beast came up, and drove her horns right into the tree and straight between the man's legs, thus giving him time to draw himself higher up out of her reach. She then turned and, followed by the calf, made off toward the stone hut where the other bushman lay hidden. As she passed his assegai touched her shoulder, and after staggering a few steps, she fell dead. The man then aimed his other assegai at the calf, and as it too dropped instantly, he came out of his shelter, while his friend, running up, jumped on the back of the old rhinoceros, and exclaimed, shouting for joy: 'Now I see you are your father's son this day.'