H I P P O P O T A M E. 
great fury, and often fink them by biting large 
pieces out of the fides, and frequently people are 
drowned by them *, for they are as bold in the wa¬ 
ter, as they are timid on land : are moft numerous 
high up the rivers; very rarely found near their 
mouths : fleep on fhoals of fand in the midft of the 
fire am. 
They , are capable of being tamed. Belon fays, 
he has feen one fo gentle, as to be let loofe out of 
a liable, and fed by its keeper, without attempting 
to injure any one. They are generally taken in pit 
falls, and the poor people eat the flefli. In fome 
parts, the natives place boards, full of fharp irons, 
in the corn grounds ; which thefe beafts ftrike into 
their feet, fo Become an eafy prey. Sometimes they 
are ftruck in the water with harpoons fallened to 
cords *, and ten or twelve canoes are employed in 
the chafe *: The teeth are moft remarkably hard, 
even harder than ivory, and much lefs liable to 
grow yellow. Des.Marchais** fays, that the den- 
tifts prefer them for the making of falfe teeth. 
The ikin, when dried, is ufed to make bucklers, 
and is of an impenetrable hardnefs’. 
A herd of females has but a Angle male: they 
bring one young at a time, and that on the land, 
but fuckle it in the water. Among other errors re¬ 
lated of them, that of their enmity with the Croco- 
* Purchases Pilgr . II. 1544. Hajfelquift gives a ftrange account of 
another method of taking them. The natives lay a great heap of 
peas in the places the Hippopotame frequents: it eats greedily 5 
then growing thirfty, drinks immoderately j the peas in its belly 
fwell, the animal burfts, and is found dead. p. 188. Engl. Ed. 
II. HQ- 
diU< 
