"Bravo, Taher!" I shouted. He had ridden splendidly, and
his blow had been marvellously delivered at an extremely long reach, as
he was nearly out of his saddle when he sprang forward to enable the
blade to obtain a cut at the last moment. He could not reach the
hamstring, as his horse could not gain the proper position.
We all immediately dismounted. The horses were thoroughly done, and I at
once loosened the girths and contemplated my steed Tetel, who, with head
lowered and legs wide apart, was a tolerable example of the effects of
pace. The other aggageers shortly arrived, and as the rival Abou Do
joined us, Taher Sherrif quietly wiped the blood off his sword without
making a remark. This was a bitter moment for the discomfited Abou Do.
There is only one species of rhinoceros in Abyssinia; this is the
two-horned black rhinoceros, known in South Africa as the keitloa. This
animal is generally five feet six inches to five feet eight inches high
at the shoulder, and, although so bulky and heavily built, it is
extremely active, as our long and fruitless hunt had shown us. The skin
is about half the thickness of that of the hippopotamus, but of extreme
toughness and closeness of texture. When dried and polished it resembles
horn.
