io6 THE RHINOCEROS. 



being raFeft, are in great requeft. Among the 

 prefents lent by the King of Siam to Lewis XIV. 

 in the year 1686 *, were fix horns of the rhi- 

 noceros In the royal cabinet we have twelve, 

 of different fizes ; and one of tliein, though cut, 

 is three feet eight inches and a half long. 



The rhinoceros, without heing ferocious, car- 

 nivorous, or even extremely wild, is, however, 

 perfectly untridab'e f. He is nearly among 

 Iarc;e, what the hog is among ftnall animals, rafh 

 and brutal, without intelligence, fe;,timent, or 

 docility. He feerns even to be fubje£fc to pa- 

 roxyfms of fuiy, which nothing can appeafe ; 



for 



417. — Ht9 horn is placed between the two noftrils; ft is very 

 thick at ti.e bale, and terminates ia a {harp point : It is of a 

 greeuilh brown colour, and not black, as fome authors main- 

 tain. When very gray, or approaching to white, it brings a 

 higli price. But it is aiways dear, on account of the value 

 put on it by the Indians ; Lie n, ton. 7. p. 277. 



* Among the prefents fent by the King of Siam to France, 

 in the year 1686, were fix rhinoccroics horns, which were 

 greatly valued over all the Eait. The Chevalier Vernati has 

 written from Batavia to Britain, that the horns, teeth, toes, 

 and blood of the rhinoceros, are antidotes, and that they are 

 as much ufed in the Indian pharmacopoeia as the theiuca in 

 that of Europe ; Voyage de la Compognie des Indes de Hollande t 

 torn. 7. p 484. 



f Chardin fays, {torn, 3. p. 45.) that the Abyflinians tame 

 the rhinoceros, and train him to labour, like the elephants. 

 This fact feerns to be extremely fufpicious : No other author 

 mentions it; and it is well known, that, in bengal, Siam, 

 and other fouthern parts of India, where the rhinoceros is, 

 perhaps, ftill more common than in ^Ethiopia, and whetfe this 

 natives are accuflomed to tame the elephants, he i led 



as an irreclaimable animal, of which no domeilic uk can be. 

 made. 



