THE PIG 145 



African savages, when they kill one of these animals, strip off 

 its hide and make shields of it. These shields will turn even a 

 rifle-bullet, unless it should happen to strike them quite full and 

 true. A curious cattle-whip, called a "sjambok", is also made 

 from the hide, and is so strong that it will cut a deep groove in a 

 deal board. 



In the Asiatic species of rhinoceros the skin is very loose, and 

 lies in great folds upon the neck, shoulders, and hind-quarters. 

 Thes? folds can easily be lifted up by the hand. The skin beneath 

 them is much softer and thinner than the rest, and flies and other 

 parasites creep under them and greatly torment the animal. In 

 order to destroy these tiny foes the rhinoceros wallows in the 

 bed of a river, and so covers its whole body with a thick coat- 

 ing of mud. 



Although the rhinoceros is so big and heavy, and so very 

 clumsy in appearance, it can run with such speed as to outstrip 

 any but a very fast horse. When attacked or irritated it becomes 

 a most formidable enemy, seeming to lose all sense of fear, and 

 caring nothing for the wounds which it receives. So fierce and 

 savage does it become, indeed, that a very experienced hunter 

 says that he would rather face fifty lions than one angry rhino- 

 ceros. 



THE PIG 



The Pig is an animal which most of us think rather disgusting. 

 We say that it is always dirty, and smells very nasty, and we 

 think that it is a very greedy, lazy creature, doing nothing but 

 eat, drink, and sleep. But we forget that we often shut it up in 

 a small sty, in which it can do nothing but feed and sleep, and 

 where it cannot keep itself clean, even if it would. When it is 

 living a free life, out in its native woods, it never eats so much as 

 to become fat and lazy. And it is then as cleanly as any other 

 animal. 



Not very long ago pigs were found wild in England, and men 

 used to hunt boars, just as they hunt foxes now. When the boars 



(M868) ^ 



