306 MAMMALIA— RHINOCEROS. 



of the elephant ; not so much on account of the matter, of which they make 

 several works with the chisel, but for its substance, to which they attribute 

 divers virtues, and medicinal properties. The white ones, as the most rare, 

 are also those which they value most. Cups made of this horn are used 

 to drink out of by many of the Indian princes, under the erroneous idea that 

 when any poisonous fluid is put into them, the liquor will ferment and run 

 over the top. 



The rhinoceros, without being ferocious or carnivorous, or even very 

 wild, is nevertheless untamable. He is of the nature of a hog, blunt and 

 grunting, without intellect, without sentiment, and without tractableness. 

 These animals are also, like the hog, very much inclined to wallow in the 

 mire ; they like damp and marshy places, and seldom leave the banks of 

 rivers. They are found in Asia, and Africa, in Bengal, Siam, Laos, in 

 the Mogul dominions, in Sumatra, in Java, in Abyssinia, and about the 

 Cape of Good Hope. The two-horned rhinoceros is only found in Africa. 

 But, in general, the species is not so numerous, or so universally spread, as 

 that of the elephant. The female brings forth but one young, and at a great 

 distance of time. In the first month the rhinoceros is not much bigger than 

 a large dog ; he has not, when first brought forth, the horn on the nose, 

 although the rudiment of it is seen in the foetus. When he is two years 

 old, this horn is only an inch long ; and in his sixth year it is about ten 

 inches. And as some of these horns have been seen very near four feet 

 long, it seems they grow till his middle age, and perhaps during the whole 

 life of the animal, which must be long, since the rhinoceros described by 

 Mr Parsons was not come to half his growth when he was two years old ; 

 which makes it probable, that this animal lives, like a man, seventy or 

 eighty years. 



Without being useful, as the elephant, the rhinoceros is very hurtful, by 

 the prodigious devastation which he makes in the fields. The skin is the 

 most valuable part of this animal. His flesh is excellent, according to the 

 taste of Indians and negroes. Kolben says, he has often eaten it with 

 great pleasure. His skin makes the best and hardest leather in the world; 

 and not only his horn, but all the other parts of his body, and even his 

 blood, his urine, and his excrements, are esteemed as antidotes against 

 poison, or a remedy against several diseases ; probably, however, all those 

 virtues are imaginary. 



The rhinoceros feeds upon herbs, thistles, prickles, and shrubs ; and he 

 prefers this wild food to the sweet pasture of the verdant meadows : he is 

 very fond of sugar-canes, and eats all sorts of corn. Having no taste what- 

 ever for flesh, he does not molest small animals, neither fears the large 

 ones, living generally in peace with them all, even with the tiger, who often 

 accompanies him, without daring to attack him. 



The rhinoceroses do not herd together, nor march m troops, like the 

 elephant; they are wilder, and more solitary, and perhaps more difficult 



