THE RHINOCEROS. 21 



and is close covered over with thick scales. It is in size like 

 an elephant, but lower, and is the elephant's deadly enemy : 

 it hath on the fore-part of its nose a strong sharp horn ; and 

 when this beast comes near the elephant to fight with him, 

 he always first whets his horn upon the stones, and runs at 

 the elephant with his head between his fore-legs ; then rips 

 up the elephant where he hath the thinnest skin, and so gores 

 him. The elephant is terribly affraid of the Rhinocerate, 

 for he gores him always wherever he meets an elephant, for 

 he is well armed, and is very alert and nimble. This beast 

 is called Rhinocero in Greek and Latin, but in Indian, 

 Gomda." 



The animal which was sent to England in 1739, is de- 

 scribed by Dr. Parsons as being "very broad and thick. His 

 head, in proportion, is very large, having the hinder part 

 next his ears extremely high in proportion to the rest of his 

 face> which is flat, and sinks down suddenly forward towards 

 the middle, rising again to the horn, but in a lesser degree. 

 The horn stands on the nose of the animal as upon a hill. I 

 have seen the bones of the head of one of these in Sir Hans 

 Sloane's museum ; and the part on which the horn is fixed 

 rises into a blunt cone, to answer to the cavity in the basis 

 of the horn, which is very hard and solid, having no manner 

 of hollow or core like those of other quadrupeds. That part 

 that reaches from the fore part of the horn towards the upper 

 lip may be called the nose, being very bulky, and having a 

 kind of circular sweep downwards towards the nostrils : on 

 all this part he has a great number of wrinkles running cross 

 the front of it, and advancing on each side towards his eyes. 

 The nostrils are situated very low, in the same direction with 

 the opening of the mouth, and not above an inch from it. 

 His under lip is like that of an ox, but the upper more like 

 that of the horse, using it, as that creature does, to gather 

 the hay from the rack, or grass from the ground ; with this 

 difference, that the rhinoceros has a power of stretching it 

 out above six inches to a point, and doubling it round a stick 

 or one's finger, holding it fast ; so that as to that action, it 

 is not unlike the proboscis of an elephant. 



6 ' As to the tongue of the rhinoceros, although it is confi- 

 dently reported by authors that it is so rough as to be capa- 

 ble of rubbing a man's flesh from his bones, yet that of our 

 present animal is soft, and as smooth as that of a calf ; whe- 

 ther it may grow more rough as the beast grows older, we 

 cannot say. 



"His eyes are dull and sleepy, much like those of a hog in 

 shape, and situated nearer the nose than that of any other 



