470 UNGULATA. 



him, screaming, and then resumed their station. Sometimes boughs of 

 trees swept them away, but they soon returned. I have shot a 

 Rhinoceros by night, and the birds remained with it till morn- 

 ing, thinking it was asleep, and tried to awaken it when I came up." 

 Other enemies than man the Rhinoceros need not fear. Lions and 

 tigers know that their claws are powerless, and that the paw Avhich can 

 prostrate an ox would not be felt by the armor-clad pachyderm. Man, 

 however, in all regions, pursues the Rhinoceros, and modern improve- 

 ments in musketry have rendered him an easy victim to the European 

 sportsman. When unaccustomed to the sight of intruders, the animal 

 takes to flight ; but when it has been repeatedly disturbed, it does not 

 wait to be attacked, but commences hostilities, and fights to the death. 



The Rhinoceros is constantly found in our menageries, where it shows 

 itself, as a rule, good-tempered, ready to take food from the spectators' 

 hands, and tame enough to be allowed to walk about in a paddock. It 

 ought to be bathed in or sprinkled with lukewarm water every day. 

 How long they will live is not known, but captive ones in India have 

 been said to have attained the age of forty-five. The use which can be 

 made of the Rhinoceros does not compensate for the damage he does. 

 He is intolerable where regular cultivation exists. All parts of the 

 animal, however, have their uses. The blood, as well as the horn, are 

 highly esteemed in the East for their medicinal qualities. Cups and 

 drinking-vessels of rhinoceros-horn are deemed a necessary in the house 

 of a wealthy man, for such cups reveal the presence of poison in any 

 fluid poured into them. The horn is used also for the handles of sabres, 

 and when polished, has a beautiful, soft, yellowish tint. Shields, breast- 

 plates, dishes, and other utensils are made from the hide: the flesh is 

 eaten, the fat and marrow employed as salves of magic efficacy. The 

 Chinese say that after swallows' nests, lizards' eggs, and little dogs, 

 nothing is such a dainty as the tail of a rhinoceros. 



