33d 28' E.)
My Companions Thought That We Were Captured By The Armed Men,
And Called Me In Alarm.
When I understood the errand on which they had come,
and had partaken of a good breakfast, though I had just before been too tired
to sleep, all my fatigue vanished.
It was the most refreshing breakfast
I ever partook of, and I walked the last eight miles without the least
feeling of weariness, although the path was so rough that one of the officers
remarked to me, "This is enough to tear a man's life out of him."
The pleasure experienced in partaking of that breakfast was only equaled
by the enjoyment of Mr. Gabriel's bed on my arrival at Loanda.
It was also enhanced by the news that Sebastopol had fallen
and the war was finished.
-
Note. - Having neglected, in referring to the footprints of the rhinoceros,
to mention what may be interesting to naturalists, I add it here in a note;
that wherever the footprints are seen, there are also marks of the animal
having plowed up the ground and bushes with his horn. This has been supposed
to indicate that he is subject to "fits of ungovernable rage";
but, when seen, he appears rather to be rejoicing in his strength.
He acts as a bull sometimes does when he gores the earth with his horns.
The rhinoceros, in addition to this, stands on a clump of bushes,
bends his back down, and scrapes the ground with his feet,
throwing it out backward, as if to stretch and clean his toes,
in the same way that a dog may be seen to do on a little grass:
this is certainly not rage.
-
Chapter 31.
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