THESOURCE OF THE NILE. 301 



learned, and amiable friend, the Pliny of Europe, and the 

 true portrait of. what a man of learning and falhion fliould 

 be. 



I SHALL only take upon me to refolve a difEcuky which 

 he feems to have had, — for what ufe the teeth of the ele- 

 phant, and the horns of the rhinoceros, were intended. He, 

 with reafon, explodes the vulgar prejudice, that thefe arms 

 were given them by Nature to fight with each other. He 

 afl«:s very properly, What can be the ground of that animo- 

 fity ? neither of them are carnivorous ; they do not couple 

 together, therefore are not rivals in love ; and, as for food, 

 the vaft forells they inhabit furnilli them with an abun- 

 dant and everlafting llore. 



But neither the elephant nor rhinoceros eat grafs. The 

 flieep, goats, horfes, cattle, and all the beafts of the coun- 

 try, live upon branches of trees. There are, in every part 

 of thefe immenfe forefls, trees of a fofr, fucculent fubdance, 

 full of pith. Thefe are the principal food of the elephant 

 and rhinoceros. They firll eat the tops of thefe leaves and 

 branches ; they then, with their horns or teetli, begin as 

 near to the root as they can, and rip, or cut the more woody 

 part, or trunks of thefe, up to where they were eaten be- 

 fore, till they fall in fo many pliable pieces of tlie fize of 

 laths. After this, they take all thefe in their monllrous 

 mouths, and twill them round as we could do the leaves of 

 a lettuce. The velligcs of this procefs, in its diflercnt ftages, 

 \vc faw every day- throughout the forefl: ; and the horns of 

 the rhinoceros, and teeth of the elephant, are often found 

 broken, when their gluttony leads them to attempt too 



large or firm a tree. 



TaERSi 



