June 15. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



35 



" I mark'd that noble thing 



Bound on his upward flight, 

 Scatter the clouds with mighty wing, 

 And breast the tide of light — 

 " And scorn'd the things that creep 

 Prone-visaged on the Earth ; 

 To eat it's fruits, to play, to sleep, 

 The purpose of their birth. 

 " Such sofllings take delight 

 In Cynthia's sickly beam — ■ 

 Give me a heav'n of coal black night 

 Slash'd with the watch-tire gleaui. 

 " They doat upon the lute, 



The cittern and tlie lyre — 

 Such sounds mine eare do little sute, 

 They match not my desire. 

 •' The trumpet-blast — let it come 

 In shrieks on the fitful gale, 

 The charger's hoof beat time to the drum, 

 And the clank of the rider's mail. 

 " Not for the heaps untold 



That swell the Miser's hoard, 

 1 claim the birthright of the bold, 

 The dowry of the Sword — 

 " Nor yet the gilded gem 



That coronets the slave — 

 I clutch the spectre-diadem 

 That marshals on the brave. 

 " For that — be Sin and Woe — 

 All priests and women tell — 

 Be Fire and Sword — I pass not tho' 

 This Earth be made a Hell. 

 " Above the rest to shine 

 Is all in all to me — 

 It is, unto a soul like mine, 

 To be, or not to be. 



" Printed with Permission of Superiours : And are 

 to be had of the Printer, at his House hard by the sign 

 of the Squirrel, over-against the way that leadeth to 

 the Quay." 



P.S. Query, What is a "hodipeke?" Is it a 

 "hypocrite?'' and should not " Phsebus," in the 

 fourth verse, be " Phcebus ?" 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



The earliest mention of the hippopotamus is in 

 Herodotus, who in ii. 71. gives a detailed descrip- 

 tion of this inhabitant of the Nile. He is stated by 

 Porphyry to have borrowed this description from 

 his predecessor llecatajus (Fraj. 292. ap. Hint. Gr. 

 Frugm., vol. i. eil. Di<iot). Herodotus, however, 

 had doubtless obtained his account of the hippo- 

 potamus during his visit to Egypt. Cuvier ( Trad, 

 de Pline, par fJrandsagne, torn. vi. p. 444.) remarks 

 that the description is only accurate as to the teeth 

 and the skin ; but that it is erroneous .is to the 

 size, the feet, the tail and mane, and tlie nose. 

 He wonders, therefore, that it sliould have been 

 repeated, with few corrections or additions, by 



Aristotle (Hist. An., ii. 1. and 7.; viii. 24.) and 

 Diodorus (i. 35.). Compare Camus, Notes sur 

 VHistoire des Animanx dAristote, p. 418. 



None of the Greek writers appear to have seen 

 a live hip])opotanm3 ; nor is there any account of a 

 live animal of this species having been brought to 

 Greece, like the live tiger which Seleucus sent to 

 Athens. According to Pliny (//. N., viii. 40.) 

 and Ammianus Marcellinus (.xxii. 15.), the Romans 

 first saw this animal in the celebrated edileship of 

 .^milius Scaurus, 58 b. c, when a hippopotamus 

 and five crocodiles were exhibited at the games, in 

 a temporary canal. Dio Cassius, however, states 

 that Augustus Csesar first exhibited a rhinoceros 

 and a hippopotamus to the Roman people in the 

 year 29 b. c. (ii 22.) Some crocodiles and hip- 

 popotami, together with other exotic animals, were 

 afterwards exhibited in the games at Rome in tlie 

 time of Antoninus Pius (a. d. 138-80. See Jul. 

 Capitolin. in Anton. Pio,K. 10.); and Commodus, 

 amongst his various exploits of animal warfare in the 

 amphitheatre, slew as many as five hippopotami 

 (a. D. 180-92. See Dio Cass. Ixxii. 10. and 19.; 

 and Gibbon, c. 4.). Firmus, an Egyptian pre- 

 tender to the empire in the time of Aurelian, 

 273 A.D., once rode on the back of a hippopotamus 

 (FJav. Vopiscus, in Firmo, c. 6.) : but this feat was 

 probably performed at Ale.xandria. 



The hippopotamus being an inhabitant of the 

 Upper Nile, was imperfectly known to the ancients. 

 Fabulous anecdotes of its habits are recounted by 

 Pliny, H. N., viii. 39, 40., and by ^lian, De Nat. 

 An., V. 53. ; vii. 19. Achilles Tatius, who wrote as 

 late ns the latter half of the fifth century of our 

 era, says that it breathes fire and smoke (iv. 2.) ; 

 while l)amascius,who was nearly his contemporary, 

 says that the hippopotamus is an unjust animal, 

 and represents injustice in the hieroglyphic writing; 

 because it first kills its father, and then violates its 

 mother (ap. Phot. BiM. cod. 242., p. 322., b. 36. 

 ed. Bekker.). 



Strabo (xv. 1.) and Arrian (Ind., c. 6.) say that 

 tlie products of the Indian rivers are similar to 

 those of Ethiopia and Egypt, with the exception 

 of the hippopotamus. They add, however, that 

 according to Onesicritus, even this exception did 

 not exist : Jbr that the hippopotamus was found in 

 the rivers of India. The report of Onesicritus was 

 doubtless erroneous. 



Herodotus, Aristotle, and tlie other Greek writers 

 constantly call this animal 'iirnos TTOTd/xios. The 

 Latin writers use the improper comjxniiid hippo- 

 pntanms ; which, according to the ordinary rule of 

 Greek composition, means, not a ricer-horsc, but 

 a horse-i'iver. The only Greek writer in whom I 

 have fimnd the compound word 'nrTroTt6r<ino% is 

 Damascius, who wrote in the sixth century. 

 Acliilles Tatius, wlio lived about the same time, 

 calls the animal "mros rov NdKou, which is, lie says, 

 its Egyptian name. It seems probable that the 



