Share page |
THE UGLIEST BEAST IN THE WOULD 205
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.' |
||