CHAPTER XI. 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



THE HIPPOPOTAMUS OR RIVER HORSE — DESCRIPTION — HABITS — FAVORITE HAUNTS — FOOD — VIOLENCE 

 WHEN PROVOKED — MATERNAL AFFECTION — MODES OP HUNTINC- — PITFALLS AND DOWNFALLS — 

 HARPOONING — THE HIPPOPOTAMUS IN CAPTIVITY — THE SMALL OR LIBERIAN HIPPOPOTAMUS. 



THE family HiPPOPOTAMlDiE contains only one genus, the Hippo- 

 potamus or " River-horse," as we call it by a literal translation 

 of the Greek name of this monstrous animal which haunts the 

 rivers of tropical Africa. The ancient Egyptians more appropriately 

 named it the " River-swine," and it seems to have been in old times com- 

 mon in the Nile River ; delineations of it occur in the ancient wall- 

 paintings of the Old Kingdom of Memphis. To hunt the River-horse 

 seems to have been one of the favorite sports of the Egyptian nobles, 

 who are depicted in the act of harpooning it, or dragging it ashore by 

 means of iron barbs attached to ropes. The Bible describes it under the 

 name of Behemoth : " He eateth grass like an ox, his bones are as strong 

 pieces of iron, he lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reeds 

 and fens, he drinketh up a river." The Greek and Roman writers make 

 repeated mention of it, and give pretty accurate descriptions of it. At 

 present, however, the Hippopotamus has receded as civilization has 

 advanced, and is only found high up the course of the Nile. In the 

 .year 1600 two River-horses were captured at the Damietta mouth of the 

 Nile, but none are now to be seen in Egypt, nor even in Nubia, where, 

 at the beginning of this century, Ruppell saw them in numbers. In the 

 Soudan, however, and in all the larger rivers and lakes of Africa, they 

 still abound. Wherever men have firearms the river-horse has vanished ; 

 where men have only lances it holds its ground. It is not till we are in 

 the interior of the continent that we see the beasts represented in the 

 hieroglyphic paintings ; there, together with the pavian and the croco- 

 dile, the elephant and the rhinoceros, we meet the Hippopotamus. 



