HIPPOPOTAMUS AMPHIBIUS. 
357 
of Narni, in Italy, which was published at Naples in 1603. The story is told 
as follows :— 
“ With the object of obtaining a hippopotamus, I posted men on the Nile, who, 
having seen two animals leave the river, made a large trench across the track and 
covered it over with light wood, earth, and grass. During the night, in returning to the 
river, both of the hippopotami fell into the trap. My men came and told me of their 
success, and I ran down with my soldier guard. We killed the two animals by giving 
each one three shots in the head from a gun of greater calibre than the ordinary 
musket. They died almost at once, giving out a cry which more resembled the lowing 
of a buffalo than the neighing of a horse. This happened on the 20th July, 1600 ; 
the next day I had them taken out of the trench and skinned with care; the one was 
a male, and the other a female. I had the skins salted ; they were filled with leaves 
of sugar-cane to take them to Cairo, where they were salted a second time with more 
care and convenience ; it required 400 lbs, of salt for each skin. 
“ On my return from Egypt in 1601 I took the skins to Venice, and from thence to 
Rome. I allowed several learned doctors to see them. 
“ The doctor Jerome Aquapendente and the celebrated Androvandus were the only 
ones who recognized the hippopotamus from these remains, and as Androvandus’ work 
was then in the press, by my permission he had the figure which appears in his book 
drawn from the female specimen. . . . The inhabitants of this part of Egypt call the 
hippopotamus ‘ Foras I’bar,’ meaning ‘ sea-horse.’ ” 
Dr. Burckhardt, in his ‘Travels in Nubia,’1819, p. 67, observes:—“The hippo¬ 
potamus is very common in the river at Dongola. Its Arabic name is ‘ Barnik ’ 
or ‘ Farass-el-Bahr ’; the Nubians call it ‘ Ird.’ It is a dreadful plague on account 
of its voracity, and the want of means in the inhabitants to destroy it. It often 
descends the Nile as far as Sukkot; the peasants, as I passed, told me there were 
three of them in the river between Mahass and Sukkot. Last year several of them 
passed the Batn el Hadjar, and made their appearance at Wady Haifa and Derr, 
an occurrence unknown to the oldest inhabitant. One was killed by an Arab by a 
shot over its right eye ; the peasants ate the flesh, and the skin and teeth were sold to a 
merchant at Siout. Another continued its course northward, and was seen beyond the 
cataract at Assouan, at Derau, one day’s march north of that place.” 
Writing from the island of Argo, in their ‘ Journal of a Visit to some parts of 
Ethiopia,’ 1822, p. 247, Waddington and Hanbury say:—“Jan. 10, 1821. The silqnce 
of the last two or three evenings had been disturbed only by one sound, the voice of 
the hippopotamus, extremely near to us ; it is a harsh and heavy sound, and like the 
creaking or groaning of a large wooden door; it is made when he raises his huge head 
