NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 65 



or square, suspended by a cloth round his middle — his 

 only covering — and supported by eight men. An im- 

 mense whip of one thick thong cut from the skin of the 

 hippopotamus was first shown to him, which he was 

 obliged to kiss and acknowledge the justice of his sen- 

 tence. The fatah was then said aloud, and two powerful 

 slaves of the sheikh inflicted four hundred stripes, reliev- 

 ing each other every thirty or forty strokes. ^They 

 strike,' says the major, ' on the back, while the end of the 

 whip, which has a knob or head, winds round and falls on 

 the breast or upper stomach : this it is that renders these 



punishments fatal. After the first two hundred ' 



here the dreadful details become too horrible. ' * * * In 

 a few hours after he had taken the whole four hundred 

 he was a corpse. The agas, kashellas, and kadis attend 

 on these occasions. I was assured the man did not 

 breathe a sigh audibly. Another punishment succeeded 

 this, which, as it ^oas for a minor offence — namely, 

 stealing ten camels and selling them — was trifling, as 

 they only gave him one hundred stripes, and with a far 

 less terrific weapon.' 



In ancient history the hippopotamus figures under 

 many shapes ; some giving it the mane of a horse and 

 the hoofs of an ox, and others the tail of the last-named 

 animal. Whether it be the behemoth of Job* is doubt- 

 ful, many asserting that it is, and as many thinking that 

 it is not : among the last Milton must be reckoned, — 



Scarce from his mold. 

 Behemoth biggest born of earth upheav'd 

 His vastness ; fleec'd the flocks and bleating rose. 

 As plants : ambiguous between sea and land 

 The river horse and scaly crocodile. f 



It is remarkable that the accounts of the ancients, 

 from Herodotus and Aristotle do^vn to Pliny and subse- 



Chap. xl. 10-19. t Paradise Lost, vii. 470. 



