490 FOOD DESTEUCTIVEKESS DISPOSITION. 



erable distance from water, for whicli it instantly makes 

 when disturbed. 



The hippopotamus is an herbaceous animal. Its chief 

 food, in the selection of which it appears rather nice, con- 

 sists of grass, young reeds, and bulbous succulent roots. 



When the hippopotamus is located near cultivated dis- 

 tricts, it is very destructive to plantations of rice and grain. 

 JVIr. Melly, in his description of the Blue and White Nile, in- 

 forms us that the inhabitants of a certain island found them- 

 selves so plagued by these animals that they were obliged to 

 apply for troops to di'ive them away, which was responded 

 to by a hundred soldiers being dispatched in pursuit of the 

 marauders. Mr. Burckhardt, again, in his travels in Nubia, 

 tells us that in Dongola, the " barnick" (the Arabic name 

 for hippopotamus) is a dreadful torment on account of its 

 voracity, and the want of means on the part of the natives 

 to destroy it. During the day it remains in the water, but 

 comes on shore at night, destroying as much by the treading 

 of its enormous feet as by its voracity. 



The ravages of the hippopotamus would appear to be an 

 old grievance, for Sir Gardner Wilkinson, when speaking of 

 the ancient Egyptians, says ; " Though not so hostile to man 

 as the voracious crocodile, it was looked upon as an enemy, 

 which they willingly destroyed, since the ravages it commit- 

 ted at night in the fields occasioned heavy losses to the 

 farmer." 



Naturalists and others represent the hippopotamus as of 

 a mild and inoffensive disposition. It may be so in regions 

 where it is unacquainted with man ; from the numerous un- 

 provoked attacks made by these animals on voyagers, and 

 the very great dread entertained of them by the Bayeye, who, 

 so to say, live among them, I am inclmed to believe they are 

 not quite such harmless animals as we are given to under- 

 stand. In ascending the Teoge, I saw comparatively little 

 of them, and used almost to ridicule the natives on account 



