BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 49 



like Horsemen ; and as they turn up their Heads, with their 

 Mouth wide open to bite, they thrust a Club into it across, 

 and so holding with the Hands each End of it, the one with 

 the right and the other with the left as with a Bridle, 

 they bring them Prisoners to land ; and then, when they 

 have them there, they so frighten them with their Voice 

 only, that they compel them to vomit up those Bodies which 

 they have newly swallowed, and bury them. And therefore 

 this is the only Island which the Crocodiles will not swim 

 to ; for the very Smell of these Tentyrites drives them 

 away, just as the Psylli 1 do with Serpents. This Animal 

 is said to see but badly in the Water ; but out of it they are 

 very quick-sighted. The four Winter Months they pass in a 

 Cave, and eat nothing. Some are of Opinion, that this is the 

 only Creature that groweth as long as he liveth ; and certainly 

 he liveth a long Time. 



The same River Nile produceth another Beast of greater 

 Height, called Hippopotamus. 2 He hath a cloven Foot like 

 an Ox ; the Back, Mane, and Neighing of an Horse ; his 

 Snout turning up. The Tail and hooked Teeth are like those 

 of Boars, but less formidable ; the Skin of his Back impene- 



yards of me ; I saw he was in a state of fear and perturbation ; I instantly 

 dropped the mast, sprang up, and jumped on his back, turning half round 

 as I vaulted, so that I gained my seat with my face in a right position. I 

 immediately seized his fore legs, and by main force twisted them on his 

 back : thus they served me for a bridle." Wern. Club. 



1 Lib. vii. 2. 



2 Hippopotamus Senegalensis. DESMOULIN. The Hippopotamus. 

 In this account of the Hippopotamus, Pliny seems to have followed Ari- 

 stotle (Lib. ii. c. 7), who in like manner copied from Herodotus (Lib. ii. 

 c. 71). It is probable that the two latter writers never saw the animal, 

 but trusted to the wild accounts of others ; and Pliny himself, although 

 he says, in the next chapter, that Marcus Scaurus exhibited the Hippo- 



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