118 THE TWO-HORNED EHIlSfOCEROS. 



likewise consider the vast quantity of water which 

 he needs. No country but that of Shangalla, which 

 he possesses^ deluged with six months rain, and full 

 of large and deep basons, made in the living rock, 

 and shaded by dark woods from evaporation, or 

 watered by large and deep rivers which never fall 

 low or to a state of dryness, can supply the vast 

 draughts of this monstrous creature : but it is not 

 for drinking alone that he frequents wet and marshy 

 places ; large, fierce, and strong as he is, he must 

 submit to prepare himself against the weakest of 

 his adversaries. The great consumption he con- 

 stantly mak^s of food and water, necessarily confines 

 him to certain limited spaces ; for it is not every 

 place that can maintain him ; he cannot emigrate 

 or seek his defence among the sands of Atbara *." 

 — His adversary is a Fly (probably of the Lin- 

 naean genus (rstriis) which is bred in tlie black earth 

 of the marshes. It persecutes him so unremittingly, 

 that it would in a short time subdue him, but for a 

 stratagem which he practises for his preservation. 

 In the night when the Fly is at rest, the Rhinoceros 

 chuses a convenient place, and there rolling in the 

 mud, clothes himself with a kind of case, which 

 defends him against his adversary the following day. 

 The wrinkles and plaits of his skin serve to keep 

 this muddy plaster firm upon him, all but about 

 his hips shoulders, and legs, where it cracks and 

 falls off, by motion, and leaves him exposed in 

 those parts to the attacks of the Fly. The itching 



TiaNcls to discover the ^'uul(.■c of the ><ilc. 



