THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 301 
fearned, and amiable friend, the Pliny of Europe, .and the 
true portrait of what a man of learning and fafhion fhould 
be. 
I suarz only take upon me to refolve a difficulty which 
- he feems to have had,—for what ufe the teeth of the ele- 
phant, and the horns of the rhinoceros, were intended. He, 
with reafon, explodes the vulgar prejudice, that thefe arms 
were given them by Nature to fight with each other. He 
afks very properly, What can be the ground of that animo- 
fity? neither of them are carnivorous; they do not couple 
together, therefore are not rivals in love; and, as for food, 
the vaft forefts they inhabit furnifh He with an abun- 
dant and. everlafting ftore.. 
ace een the elephant nor rhinoceros eat grafs.. The 
fheep, goats, horfes, cattle, and all the beafts of the coun- 
try, live wpon branches of trees. There are, in every part 
of thefe immenfe forefts, trees of a foft, fucculent fubftance,,. 
full of pith. Thefe are the principal food of the elephant 
and rhinoceros. They firft eat the tops of thefe leaves and 
branches ; they then, with their horns or teeth, begin as 
near to the root as they can, and rip, or cut the more woody 
part, or trunks of thefe, up to where they were eaten be- 
fore, till they fall in fo many pliable pieces of the fize of 
Jaths, After this, they take all thefe in their monftrous 
mouths, and twift them round as we could do the leaves cf 
a lettuce. The veftiges of this procefs, in its different ftages, 
we faw every day throughout the foreft; andthe horns of 
the rhinoceros, and teeth of the elephant, are often found 
_ broken, when their gluttony leads them to-attempt too 
‘large or firm a tree. 
‘ THERES 
