VIII.
Now it behoves me (or behooves)
To give a retrospect that proves
What foresight can achieve,
The kind of thing that (by the way)
Men in our cold agnostic day
Must come from Africa to say,
From England to believe.
Blood had, while yet we were in town,
Said with his intellectual frown:
“Suppose a Rhino knocks you down
And walks upon you like a mat,
Think of the public irritation,
If with an incident like that,
We cannot give an illustration.”
Seeing we should be at a loss
To reproduce the scene,
We bought a stuffed rhinocerous,
A Kodak, and a screen.
We fixed a picture. William pressed
A button, and I did the rest.
The Lion never will attack
A White, if he can get a Black.
And there were such a lot of these
We could afford with perfect ease
To spare one here and there.
It made us more compact—and then—
It’s right to spare one’s fellow men.
Of far more consequence to us,
And much more worthy to detain us,
The very creature that we feared
(I mean the white Rhinoceros,
“Siste Viator Africanus”)
In all its majesty appeared.
This large, but peevish pachyderm
(To use a scientific term),
Though commonly herbivorous,
Is eminently dangerous.
It may be just the creature’s play;
But people who have felt it say
That when he prods you with his horn
You wish you never had been born.
As I was dozing in the sun,
Without a cartridge to my gun,
Upon a sultry day,
Absorbed in somnolescent bliss,
Just such an animal as this
Came charging where I lay.
My only refuge was to fly,
But flight is not for me![5]
Blood happened to be standing by,
He darted up a tree
And shouted, “Do your best to try
And fix him with the Human Eye.”
Besides, I found my foot was caught
In twisted roots that held it taut.
Between a person and a beast
(But for the Human Eye at least)
The issue must be clear.
The tension on my nerves increased,
And yet I felt no fear.
Nay, do not praise me—not at all—
Courage is merely physical,
And several people I could name
Would probably have done the same.
I kept my glance extremely firm,
I saw the wretched creature squirm;
A look of terror over-spread
Its features, and it dropped down dead.
At least, I thought it did,
And foolishly withdrew my gaze,
When (finding it was rid
Of those mysterious piercing rays)
It came to life again.
It jumped into the air, and came
With all its might upon my frame.
(Observe the posture of the hoof.
The wire and black support that look
So artificial in the proof
Will be deleted in the book.)