Tetel
Was A Good Strong Cob, But Not Very Fast; However, I Believe He Never
Went So Well As Upon That Day, For, Although An Abyssinian Horse, I Had
A Pair Of English Spurs, Which Worked Like Missionaries.
The ground was
awkward for riding at full speed, as it was an open forest of mimosas,
which, although wide apart, were very difficult to avoid, owing to the
low crowns of spreading branches, and these, being armed with fish-hook
thorns, would have been serious in a collision.
I kept the party in view
until in about a mile we arrived upon open ground. Here I again applied
the spurs, and by degrees I crept up, always gaining, until I at length
joined the aggageers.
Here was a sight to drive a hunter wild! The two rhinoceroses were
running neck and neck, like a pair of horses in harness, but bounding
along at tremendous speed within ten yards of the leading Hamran. This
was Taher Sherrif, who, with his sword drawn and his long hair flying
wildly behind him, urged his horse forward in the race, amid a cloud of
dust raised by the two huge but active beasts, that tried every sinew of
the horses. Roder Sherrif, with the withered arm, was second; with the
reins hung upon the hawk-like claw that was all that remained of a hand,
but with his naked sword grasped in his right, he kept close to his
brother, ready to second his blow.
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