62 Rhinoceroses. 



spot in its heart, which often led to its destruction, 

 for " it is said by Albertus, Isidorus, and Alumnus 

 that above all creatures they love virgins, and that 

 unto them they will come, be they never so wilde, 

 and fall asleep before them, so being asleep they 

 are easily taken and carried away." 



Finally, the horn of the rhinoceros was supposed 

 to possess wonderful medicinal properties, and to 

 be an antidote to poison a belief which held its 

 ground nntil quite the end of last century, for 

 Dr. Brookes, writing in 1763, says : "It has been 

 usually said that the horn of a rhinoceros will fall 

 in pieces when poison is poured therein. At the 

 Cape they have cups made of the horn, which are 

 mounted in gold and silver. When wine is poured 

 therein it will rise, ferment, and seem to boil ; but 

 when mixed with poison, it cleaves in two, which 

 experiment has been seen by thousands of people." 



Rhinoceroses, of which five or six species are 

 known, are found only in the African and Indian 

 regions; and though they vary much in appear- 

 ance, they all of them have large unwieldy bodies, 

 supported on short legs, with three toes on each 

 foot, skins which are thick and unyielding so 

 much so, in the Asiatic species, as to " necessitate 

 the formation of deep folds to enable them to 

 move their limbs with any facility " and either 

 one or two horns, which differ from those of other 

 mammals not only in their position (placed as they 

 are on the animal's nose), but also in their 

 structure, as they are " composed of modified and 



