38 service--a cartridge classified as too light
for serious business.
* * * * *
One afternoon I gave my shotgun to one of the porters to carry afield,
remarking facetiously to all and sundry that he looked like a gunbearer.
After twenty minutes we ran across a rhinoceros. I spent some time
trying to manoeuvre into position for a photograph of the beast.
However, the attempt failed. We managed to dodge his rush. Then, after
the excitement had died, we discovered the porter and the shotgun up a
tree. He descended rather shamefaced. Nobody said anything about it. A
half-hour later we came upon another rhinoceros. The beast was visible
at some distance, and downhill. Nevertheless the porter moved a little
nearer a tree. This was too much for Memba Sasa. All the rest of the
afternoon he "ragged" that porter in much the same terms we would have
employed in the same circumstances.
"That place ahead," said he, "looks like a good place for rhinoceros.
Perhaps you'd better climb a tree."
"There is a dikdik; a bush is big enough to climb for him."
"Are you afraid of jackals, too?"
* * * * *
The fireflies were our regular evening companions. We caught one or two
of them for the pleasure of watching them alternately igniting and
extinguishing their little lamps. Even when we put them in a bottle they
still kept up their performance bravely.
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