The People's vindicator. [volume] (Natchitoches, La.) 1874-1883, 1881-10-22

| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS uOu YOU See
YOU work, and ought to help some. too.
Because-tO show how much love yOu!'
Our Little Oncs.
THE RHINOCEROS.
When the rhinocerOs is at home
where it is probable he had much rath j.
or be than dragged around the country
in a gaudily-painted cart as one of the
attractions of a menagerie. or confined
in some geological garden, where he is
prevented from goring the small boy
who gazes at him as impudently as he
pIeases-hc lives in Asia or Africa.
Perhaps it would be more proper to say
that be fights in those countries, for the
greater portion OF his long life is made
up of combats with his relatives or anv
other animals who come in mis- way.
In Africa there are four varieties, dis
tiuguishcd by the natives rs follows:
the borele, or black rhnoceros, the
keitloa, or two-horned black, the moo
hooho. or common white, and the ka-
Doba, or long-horned white rhinoceros.
The first two are smaller but more fierce
than the white ones. and are quite as
willing to hunt the sportsman as to be
hunted. The largest of the Africans is
the long-horned white rhinoceros, which
has been found eighteen feet six inches
in length. and the circumference of its
broad back and low-hanging belly is
very nearly the same number of feet
and inches.
There are three species of the Asiatic
rhlnoceros, two OF which have but one
horn, while the third has two. These
are much smaller than their brothers
from Africa, and their skin hangs in
folds.
Mr.: Greenwood says that the hunters
and writer's who have asserted that a
bullet will hardly pierce this animals
hide are mistaken, and chat rihe-ball
will penetrate the loose, baggy cover
ing with little or no difficulty. The be-
lief that the hide was 80 tough proba-
bly, arose from experiments made with
that which had been toughened almost
like horn by process employed by the
natives. who make from it whip-stocks
and walking-canes.
MIR. Gordon Cumming, the celebrated
hunter, in speaking of the largest Afri-
can species, SAYS: at is about as large
around as it is long, while the body sets
so low on its legs that atall man a-tiptoe
could see across its back. Attached to-
its blunt nOse-not to the bone, but
merely set in the skin with network
of muscles to hold its horn more or
less curved, hard as steel, sharp and
more than yard long, and immediate.
" behind this is a little horn, equally
sharp, and nearly straight" His eyes
are very small, and as useful to him by
night as by day. His ears are long.
pointed, and tipped with few bristles,
which, with tuft at the end of his tail.
make up all the semblance of hair he
possesses.
The length of the horn varies in the
different species, the main horn of the
kaboba exceeding four feet, while that
of the moohooho is seldom over two
feet. I: all cases, among the double
horned .nimals, the rear one-that is
to say, the one nearest the forehead
is always short, not often more than six
inches.
There are many singular supersti-
lions regarding the horn of the rhi.
noceros, which is not as valuable for its
ivory as that from the elephant. Rhi-
shavings are supposed by
many people to cure certain diseases,
and it is believed that if poison he
poured in cup made of the horn, it
will burst it. A German writer saws:
''Ihis horn will not endure the touch
Of poison; | have often been witness
o. this: Many people of fashion at the
cape have cups turned out of the rhi- s
noceros horn; some have them set in sill.
yer, and some in gold. If wine is ,
poured into one of these cups it i'm t
mcdiately rises and bubbles up A. I
though it were boiling, and if there il
poison in it. the cup Immediately splits.
Il poison is put by itself into ope OF {
'nese cups, it in an instant flies to
'ieces:.. The chips made in turninc q
me OF these cups are ever carefully b
'aved and returned to the owner of the S
up, being esteemed of great benefit in =
'onvulsionc Paintings, and many other f
~ j
AS to whether the horn of the r. noe. s
ros is such a test for poison, the reader D
nay safely doubt; but it can make little s
Inference, since it is hardly probable a
&c cares either for the wine or the mi.
on, and has no need of such sensitive II
cup. g
Clumsy.looking as the great brute is, "
lr: Gordon Cumming says "a horse I,
nd rider can rarely manage to over II
AXE him." Another famous African p
unter writes: "He is not often mr. 81
led on horseback, and chiefly because b.
is speed and endurance are such that ie
IS very difficult to come up with and h
blow him, to say nothing of the dan. o.
or attendant on such 9 course. MANY E
hunter Indeed, has thereby endan: y
cred his life.'' VI
One OF the most singular of attend. % .,
nts is that which the rhinoceros has. u
is 9 little bird called
ornithologists Rnphaqa af,1cana
nd known to hunters a. thu
linoceros bird. This little fellow 20
ings to the animals hide by mean, Of "a
s long claws and elastic tail, feeding M
4 the insects that infest the leather r.
lin: In doing this it renders preat an an
'rVice to the huge brute, but triiling ov
J compared to its other (lutv r. oots ~.