Mr Linant's Expedition to Egypt. 303 



Of the larger animals, there are droves of wild elephants, but 

 none in a reclaimed or domestic state (neither are there any, I 

 apprehend, in Abyssinia), which seems to be very strange in coun- 

 tries where the people have been always warlike. The Hippopota- 

 mus is common in the river, and the whips (called Coorbash) sold 

 in Egypt, are really manufactured from its hide ; and not from the 

 elephant's, as I have heard pretended at Cairo. This creature is 

 not of the form in which it appears in all our plates of natural his- 

 tory ; it is of a much lower and more lengthened proportion, which 

 I had myself imagined from the skin and remains of that which I 

 saw recently killed at Damietta, in my last journey. Its cry is a 

 sort of loud grunting, very hideous and alarming, especially in the 

 night time; but it is not considered a ferocious or dangerous 

 animal ; neither did any which Linant saw exhibit the appearance 

 of those protruded tusks which are shown in the pictures of this 

 animal. He saw some that were of a bay colour, and had white 

 faces ; this possibly may account for the strange misnomer both in 

 Greek and in Arabic, of calling a creature, so very differently 

 shaped, the river horse. 



The abundance of camels (of course domestic) is so great, that 

 no meat is commoner in the market at Senna'ar or Shandy ; those 

 which become unserviceable being killed for eating. Wild swine 

 are found in great numbers in the moister places, and are eaten by 

 many of the natives, though Mahommedans, v/ithout scruple, who 

 will also both eat raw meat occasionally, and drink the warm blood 

 of living animals. The wild ape goes in large herds. The giraffe 

 was spoken of as of no very rare occurrence ; but Linant met with 

 none in a wild state ; he was, however, so lucky as to see one at 

 Senna'ar, brought thither by the natives (the same as has been since 

 Bent as a present to the Grand Seignior, and is, I apprehend, now 

 alive at Constantinople) : this was at that time very young, and no 

 bigger than a fawn : very gentle and docile in its disposition: it then 

 fed upon milk, straddling out its legs very wide, in order to reach 

 the ground, which, with so very long a neck, one should hardly 

 have thought necessary, though this has always been said of it. 

 The natives uniformly spoke of the Unicorn as of a real and known 



