THE RHINOCEROS. 329 



place.^ Pausanias also speaks of the two-horned animal; but he 

 calls it an Ethiopian bull. The Eomans must frequently have 

 seen these animals, for we read that the Emperors Antonius, 

 Heliogabalus, and Gordian III., all exhibited them at the various 

 periods of their reigns. 



Although their strength and blind ferocity must make these 

 animals terrific opponents of other large and savage beasts when 

 actually engaged in combat, yet when kept in captivity they 

 require urging and angering before they will attack, and if left to 

 themselves seem^ only to act on the defensive. It is not upon 

 record whether the Romans managed to get more excitement 

 out of these animals than their sporting imitators the princes 

 in India do, for according to accounts given by several writers 

 of the animal combats, that used frequently to be seen at 

 the native courts, the rhinoceros is not a satisfactory beast. 

 Captain Mundy * in his description of the wild animal contests 

 witnessed by him in 1827 in the King of Oude's park in Lucknow, 

 writes : " A rhinoceros was next let loose in the open court- 

 yard and the attendants attempted to induce him to pick a 

 quarrel with a tiger who was chained to a ring. The rhinoceros 

 appeared, however, to consider a fettered foe as quite beneath his 

 enmity; and having once approached the tiger and quietly 

 surveyed him as he writhed and growled, expecting the attack, 

 turned suddenly round, and trotted awkwardly off to the yard- 

 gate, where he capsized a palankeen which was carrying away a 

 lady fatigued with the sight of these unfeminine sports." 



For centuries after the downfall of the Roman empire no speci- 

 men of a rhinoceros of either the Asian or African species was 

 brought to Europe. The first that was again seen was an animal 

 that was sent from India to Emanuel, King of Portugal, in the 

 year 1513. It was subsequently sent by Emanuel as a present 

 to the Pope, but during the journey the animal became so furious 

 and ungovernable that it absolutely sunk the vessel on which it 

 was being transported. 



A sketch of this creature was sent from Lisbon to Nuremberg 

 for Albert Diirer, who made an engraving from it, and this was 

 * " Pen and Pencil Sketches." 



