458 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 58. 



Nile as low as that district. In tlie next place, 

 there is notliinpj in the words of Herodotus to in- 

 dicate that he had seen the object of his descrip- 

 tion, (ii. 71.) On the other hand, the substance 

 of his description tends strongly to the inference 

 that he had not seen the animal. It is difficult to 

 conceive that any eye-witness could have de- 

 scribed a hippopotamus as having the hoofs of an 

 ox, with the mane and tail of a horse. His infor- 

 mation as to javelins being made of its skin was 

 doubtless correct, and he may perhaps have seen 

 some of these weapons. Cuvier conjectures that 

 the original author of the description in Herodotus 

 had seen only the teeth and some part of the skin 

 of the real hippopotamus ; but that the other par- 

 ticulars were taken from a figure or description of 

 the gnu. (Trad.de P^/jjc, tom. vi. p. 444.) This 

 su]iposition is improbable, for the gnu is an animal 

 of Southern Africa, and was doubtless unknown to 

 the Egyptians in the time of Herodotus. More- 

 over, Cuvier is in error as to the statement of 

 Herodotus respecting the animal's size : he says 

 that the animal is equal in size, not to an ass, but 

 to the largest ox. The statement as to the ass is 

 to be found in Arist. Hist. A7i., ii. 7. Cuvier's 

 note is hastily written ; for he says that Diodorus 

 describes tlie hippopotamus as equalling the 

 strongest bulls, — a statement not to be found in 

 Diodorus. (i. 35.) His judgment, however, is 

 clear, as to the point that none of the ancient 

 naturalists described the hippopotamus from 

 autopsy. The writer of the accurate history of 

 the hippopotamus in the Penny Ci.clopadirr, vol. xii. 

 ]>. 247., likewise takes the same view. If Achilles 

 Tatius is correct in stating that " the horse of the 

 Nile" was the native Egyptian name of the animal, 

 it is probable that the resemblance to the horse, 

 indicated in the description of Herodotus, was 

 su]-)plied by the imagination of some informant. 



In the mosaic of Falcstrina (see Bavthelemy in 

 Mem. de VAcad. des Insc?-ipt., torn. xxx. p. 503.), 

 the hippopotamus appears three times in the lower 

 part of tlie composition, at the left-hand corner. 

 Two entire figures are represented, and one head 

 of an animal sinking into the river. Men in a 

 boat are throwing darts at them, some of which 

 are sticking in their backs. (See lb. p. 521.) 

 Diodorus (i. 35.) describes the hippopotamus as 

 being harpooned, and caught in a manner similar 

 to the whale. Barthelemy properly rejects the sup- 

 position that the mosaic of Palestrina is the one 

 alluded to by Pliny (Hist. Nut. xxxvi. 64.) as 

 having been constructed by Sylla. He places it 

 in the time of Hadrian, and supposes it to repre- 

 sent a district of Upper Egypt, with which the 

 introduction of the hippopotamus well accords. 

 The true form of the hippopotamus was unknown 

 in Italy in the time of Sylhi. 



Tiie word iTrTroTrdrn/ios, as used by the Latin 

 riters, instead of 'linros irorduiot, occurs in Luciau 



(Bliet. PrcBcept, c. 6.). The author of the Cyne- 

 getica, who addresses his poem to the Emperor 

 Caracalla, describes the hipjiopotnmus under the 

 name of 'liriraypos, "the wild hoi'so," compounded 

 like iua'jpos (iii. 251-61.). In this passage the old 

 error as to the cloven hoofs and the mane is re- 

 peated. It is added that the animal will not 

 endure captivity ; but if any one is snared by 

 means of ropes, he refuses to eat or drink. That 

 this latter statement is fabulous, is proved by the 

 hippopotamus taken alive to Constnntinop)le, and 

 by the very tame animal now in the Zoological 

 Garden. 



Tlie fable about the hippopotamus destroying 

 its father and violating its mother, cited before 

 from Damascius, is to be found in Plutarch, De 

 Solcrt. Anim., c. 4. Pausan. (viii. 46. § 4.) men- 

 tions a Greek statue, in which the face was made 

 of the teeth of the hippopotamus instead of ivory. 



An interesting account of the young hippopo- 

 tamus in tlie Zoological Garden, by Professor 

 Owen, may be seen in the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natiwal History for June last. L. 



PARALLEL, PASSAGES : COLERIDGE, 

 BUTLER. 



HOOKER, 



I do not remember to have seen the following 

 par.allels pointed out. 



Coleridge. The Nightingale. A conversation 

 poem : 



" The nightingale — 



' Most musical, most melancholy ' bird ! 



A nielanclioly bird ! Oil ! idle thoufcht ! 



In nature there is nothing melancholy.' 



Hut some night- wandering man whose heart was 

 pieiced 



With the remembrance of a grievous wrong, 

 he, and such as he, 



First named these notes a melancholy strain." 



Plato Pha:do, § 77. (p. 85., Steph.) : 



" Men, because they fear death themselves, slander 

 the swans, and say that they sing from pain lamenting 

 their death, and do not consider that no bird sings 

 when hungry, or cold, or suffering any other pain ; no, 

 not even the nightingale, and tlie swallow, and the 

 hoopoe, which you know are said to sing for grief," &c. 



Hooker, E. P. I. c. 5. § 2. : 



" All things therefore coveting as much as may be 

 to be like unto God in being ever, that which cannot 

 hereunto attain personally doth seek to continue itself 

 another way, that is, by offspring and propagation." 

 Clem. Alex. Strom. II. 23. § 138. (p. 181. Sylb.) 

 Sir J. Davies. Tnimortality of the Sold, sect 7. : 

 " And though the sonl could cast spiiitu.il seed, 

 Yet would she not, because she never dies ; 

 For mortal things desire their like to breed, 

 That so they may their kind immortalise." 



