ros
disappeared, and Omrah stood capering and shouting with delight. The
fact was that Omrah, when he had left our travellers, had gone down
towards the river, and as he went along had with his light weight passed
over what he knew full well to be one of the deep pits dug by the
Bushmen to catch those animals. Having fully satisfied himself that it
was so, he had remained by the side of it, and when the rhinoceros
rushed at him, he kept the pit between him and the animal. His object
was to induce the animal to charge at him, which it did, and when within
four yards of the lad, had plunged into the pit dug for him. The
success of Omrah's plan explained the whole matter at once, and our
travellers hastened up to where the rhinoceros was impounded, and found
that a large stake, fixed upright in the centre of the pit, had impaled
the animal. A shot from the Major put an end to the fury and the agony
of the animal.

"I never was more excited in my life; I thought the boy was mad and
wanted to lose his life," said Alexander.

"And so did I," replied Swinton; "and yet I ought to have known him
better. It was admirably done; here we have an instance of the
superiority of man endowed with reasoning power over brutes. A
rhinoceros will destroy the elephant; the lion can make no impression on
him, and flies before him like a cat. He is in fact the most powerful
of all animals; he fears no enemy, not even man, when he is provoked or
wounded; and yet he has fallen by the cleverness of that little monkey
of a Bush-boy. I think, Major, we have done enough now, and may go back
to the caravan."

"Yes, I am well satisfied with our day's sport, and am not a little
hungry. We may now let the Hottentots bring home as much game as they
can. You have taken care to give directions about your specimens,
Swinton?"

"Yes, Bremen knows the animals which I require, and is now after them.
Omrah, run and tell that fellow to bring our horses here."

"Swinton, can birds and beasts talk, or can they not?" said the Major.
"I ask that question because I am now looking at the enormous nests of
the grosbeaks. It is a regular town with some hundreds of houses.
These birds, as well as those sagacious animals, the beaver, the ant,
and the bee, not to mention a variety of others, must have some way of
communicating their ideas."

"That there is no doubt of," replied Swinton, laughing; "but still I
believe that man only is endowed with speech