216 FACT AGAINST FICTION, 



a knife in the creature's rump, because the beast's 

 own tail was not a sufficient rudder for them 

 to grasp. It is a foolish thing to tell such a 

 hippopotamus tale as this when the live tail can 

 be seen by all visitors to the Zoological Gardens 

 in London. 



There was another would-be traveller, who at 

 one time, among his companions, used to be called 

 the ^^ Pawnee"; his truth, or otherwise, on other 

 matters has been since established. He gained 

 the flattering cognomen of the ^^ Pawnee" from 

 a tale he told of his having, while in America, 

 joined that noble tribe of savages^ dining with them 

 every day, for a considerable period, on the raw 

 livers of bison, which he, in common with maii}^ 

 other vexatious travellers, will call ^' buffaloes," 

 — the bison being the beast of the plains of the 

 ^' Far "West," and the buffalo the inhabitant of 

 quite another region. However, the Americans 

 fall into this error themselves ; but then we must 

 make allowances for them, for it has long been 

 apparent that no one stretches a point more 

 finely than some classes of the tobacco-chewing 

 Yankee. The true gentleman of America is as 

 far from rej)roach as any other. 



