136 HISTORY OF THE RHINOCEROS. 



disposed as to be managed to the greatest advantage. It 

 is composed of the most solid substance ; and pointed 

 so as to inflict the most fatal wounds. The elephant, the 

 boar, or the buffalo, are obliged to strike transversely with 

 their weapons ; but the rhinoceros employs all his force 

 with every blow ; so that the tiger will more willingly 

 attack any other animal of the forest, than one whose 

 strength is so justly employed. Indeed, there is no force 

 which this terrible animal has to apprehend : defended, 

 on every side, by a thick horny hide, which the claws of 

 the lion or the tiger are unable to pierce, and armed before 

 with a weapon that even the elephant does not choose to 

 oppose. The missionaries assure us, that the elephant is 

 often found dead in the forests, pierced with a horn of a 

 rhinoceros. The combat between these two, the most for- 

 midable animals of the forest, must be very dreadful. 

 Emanuel, king of Portugal, willing to try their strength, 

 actually opposed them to each other; and the elephant 

 was defeated. 



Although the rhinoceros is thus formidable by nature, 

 yet imagination has not failed to exert itself, in adding to 

 its terrors. The scent is most exquisite ; and it is affirmed 

 that it consorts with the tiger. It is reported also, that 

 when it has overturned a man, or any other animal, it 

 continues to lick the flesh quite from the bone with its 

 tongue, which is said to be extremely rough. All this, 

 however, is fabulous ; the scent, if we may judge from the 

 expansion of the olfactory nerves, is not greater than that 

 of a hog, which we know to be indifferent ; it keeps com- 

 pany with the tiger, only because they both frequent 

 watery places in the burning climates where they are bred : 

 and as to its rough tongue, that is so far from the truth, 

 that no animal of near its size has so soft a one. " I have 

 often felt it myself," says Ladvocat, in his description of 

 this animal; "it is smooth, soft, and small, like that of a 

 dog ; and to the feel it appears as if one passed the hand 

 over velvet." 



