Baba Shirzad dismounted; a few fine steaks were cut from the boar’s body with the broad blade of his creese, a fire was kindled, and a dish of keibobs speedily prepared. Having despatched this summary meal, in which their guide declined participating, they remounted their steeds, and proceeding towards the thicket, prepared to attack the rhinoceros should he cross their path.
Upon gaining the skirts of a very close cover, a buffalo was seen bounding over the plain with amazing speed, its head almost between its knees, and its tail in the air, exhibiting tokens of furious animosity.
As the creature approached, the earth flew from its heels like fragments after an explosion. It snorted—its eyes glared, it plunged, and on reaching the horsemen, made a rush towards the foremost with its head nearly bent to the ground, and its back curved like a crescent. The Mogul chief moved his steed actively on one side, and the maddened buffalo passed him in the impetuosity of its career with the speed of a dart. He immediately wheeled round, so did the buffalo, and repeated its charge. The Mogul, raising himself in his stirrups, lifted his heavy Damascus cimetar, turned his horse again as the animal charged, and stooping suddenly, brought upon the horns of the furious beast his ponderous weapon, which cut sheer through them, and was deeply buried in its neck. The buffalo rolled dead upon the plain. The head was nearly severed from its body. The fisherman looked on with amazement.
“In truth, master,” said he, “I think the hide of a rhinoceros would hardly stand against such a stroke. Yours must be a rare arm for hewing down foes. I’d rather be your friend than your enemy. If you could contrive to give the mailed forester such a thump upon a spot where your sword might enter, I wouldn’t give a fish’s eye for its life.”
“I shall see what is to be done if you can only show me the game. There’s more in the will than in the stroke. A coward, had he the strength of your war god, and were armed with Vishnoo’s chackra, would not be able to slay a cat that raised its paw against him.”
“But what could the valour of Hanuman[21] avail with a puny arm? The mere will can never accomplish the deed. Courage should be cased in a strong frame, with firm bones and tough sinews, else ’tis like putting gems in tinsel—a precious commodity in a worthless outside.”
The carcase of the buffalo was now left to welter on the plain, a feast for crows and vultures, and finally for pismires, which picked its bones as bare as a scraped radish long before sunset. The horsemen proceeded with all despatch into the thicket, where they hoped to meet with the sullen tyrant of the wood, to whose fierce strength the elephant has often yielded up its life in a clumsy but desperate conflict.
The growth of the forest, a short distance beyond the skirts, was very thin, having been cleared in some spots, and in others enclosing small savannas formed by the marshy nature of the soil, which was low and in places excessively swampy. They at length gradually ascended into drier ground, where the growth of the underwood was thicker, and the fisherman almost immediately pointed out the spot where the rhinoceros was said to be frequently seen.
“Upon turning yonder angle,” said he, “you will enter a small defile, flanked on one side by a rocky barrier, and on the other by a grove of lofty trees. I shall take leave to wish you a happy deliverance should you come upon the brute, which is, to my thinking, likely to afford you grave pastime.”
The horsemen rode forward, and on turning the angle pointed out by the fisherman, the rhinoceros appeared, feeding at the further extremity of the glen. Upon seeing the intruders he raised his head, bent back his ears, and stamped his foot violently against the ground, as if peremptorily prohibiting their advance. Their bows were already strung, and fixing each an arrow in the string, they discharged them simultaneously at the huge beast. Three of the shafts fell blunted from his side as if they had struck against a wall of granite, rebounding to a distance of several yards; but the arrow of the chief, directed with a more vigorous arm and a surer aim, struck the sturdy animal near the right ear and remained fixed.