350 NATURAL HISTORY. 



It is interesting to know that Milton evidently considered Behemoth to mean the Elephant, or, 

 at any rate, not the Hippopotamus, for in " Paradise Lost," in writing of the Creation, he says : 



" Scarce from his mould 

 Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheaved 

 His vastness : fleeced the flocks, and bleating, rose 

 As plants : ambiguous between sea and land 

 The river horse and scaly crocodile." 



According to Pliny, the Hippopotamus was first seen in Europe in the curule sedileship of 

 Scaurus, 58 B.C., when the exhibition in the circus surpassed anything the Romans had ever seen. 

 Among other novelties, he exhibited a Hippopotamus and five Crocodiles. But according to Dion 

 Cassius, the Hippopotamus was first shown in the games celebrated by Augustus, 29 B.C. So 

 great was the demand for Hippopotami in the Roman sports at a later period, that according to 

 Marcellinus Ammianus, they had disappeared from Egypt since the time of the Emperor Julian. 

 Favourable circumstances, however, must have again restored them, as we learn, from the accounts 

 given by Zerenghi and others, of their being plentiful about the year 1600 and later. In some 

 parts of Egypt the Hippopotamus seems to have been sacred, as we learn from Herodotus. Sonnini 

 relates that the Hippopotami laid bare whole countries by their terrible ravages, and from the 

 terror they inspired they were generally looked upon as the symbol of Typhon, that giant who spread 

 death and destruction among the deities which were worshipped, and were the emblem of mischance 

 and cruelty, and that the worship of them at Papi'esius was practised with the view of appeasing and 

 averting their anger. 



The descriptions given by early writers of the Hippopotamus are in many instances most ludicrous. 

 Aristotle, borrowing from Herodotus, states that " the Hippopotamus of Egypt has a mane like a 

 Horse, a bifurcated hoof like an Ox, a flat visage or muzzle, an astragalus like the animals with cloven 

 feet, projecting teeth which do not show themselves much, the tail of a Hog, the voice of a Horse, 

 and in size it resembles an Ass. Its skin is of such a thickness that spears are made of it." It is 

 pretty clear from this description that Aristotle meant the Hippopotamus, but also that he never saw 

 one. Diodorus approaches nearer to the truth as to the size of this animal when he says that it is 

 five cubits in length, and that the bulk resembles that of the Elephant. However, he still retains 

 the cloven hoof and Horse's mane. Pliny speaks of it as living in the Nile, and also gives it the 

 bifid hoof of the Ox, the back, mane, and neigh of the Horse, a flattened muzzle, the tail and teeth 

 of the Boar ; evidently following the descriptions given of it by Aristotle. He also adds that 

 helmets and bucklers are made of its skin, and that the animal feeds on the crops, and is very 

 cautious in avoiding snares ; but he goes on to say that it is covered with hair like the Seals. It is 

 difficult to conceive how he could have fallen into so great an error after having spoken of its being 

 exhibited in Rome by M. Scaurus, with five Crocodiles. He finishes his account by stating that when 

 the animal gets too fat, and is diseased, it bleeds itself by pi'essing a vein of its leg against some sharp 

 object, and then plastering up the wound with mud, so that it may speedily heal. The ancient artists 

 appear to have been more faithful in their portraits of the Hippopotamus than the ancient authors 

 and naturalists in their descriptions ; indeed, with very few exceptions, the animal has been pretty 

 faithfully portrayed. One exception is a figure copied by Hamilton from one of the caves of Beni- 

 Hassan, in which the feet are displayed as cloven, aud the lower tusks made to appear so excessively 

 large as to prevent all possibility of their being hidden when the animal closed its jaws. In the 

 figure on the plinth of the statue of the Nile, which was formerly in the Vatican, although the teeth 

 and feet are not correct, the general idea is good ; and in many other sculptures and mosaics it is very 

 well represented, also on some of the medals and coins of Roman Emperors : sometimes it is repre- 

 sented as holding a Crocodile in its mouth, which probably may have given rise to the stories of the 

 enmity the Hippopotamus bears towards the Crocodile. In more modern times we have more or less 

 fabulous descriptions given by Isidore of Seville and Vincent de Beauvais, neither of whom appears to 

 have seen the animal. Belon and Grillius, it would seem, are the first of the moderns who actually 

 saw the Hippopotamus alive, and this was at Constantinople, although Sonnini appears to doubt the 

 identity of the animal which Belon saw. This is hardly justifiable, as Belon was a very accurate 



