Ethiopia the best, when prophecying about the destruction of Idumea,
says, that the reem shall come down with the fat cattle; a proof that
he knew his habitation was in the neighbourhood. In the same manner as
when foretelling the desolation of Egypt, he mentions as one manner of
effecting it, the bringing down, the fly[37] from Ethiopia to meet the
cattle in the desert, and among the bushes, and destroy them there,
where that insect did not ordinarily come but on command[38], and where
the cattle fled every year to save themselves from that insect.
The Rhinoceros, in Geez, is called Arwé Harish, and in the Amharic,
Auraris, both which names signify the large wild beast with the horn.
This would seem as if applied to the species that had but one horn.
On the other hand, in the country of the Shangalla, and in Nubia
adjoining, he is called Girnamgirn, or horn upon horn, and this would
seem to denote that he had two. The Ethiopic text renders the word
Reem, Arwé Harish, and this the Septuagint translates Monoceros, or
Unicorn.
If the Abyssinian rhinoceros had invariably two horns, it seems to
me improbable the Septuagint would call him Monoceros, especially as
they must have seen an animal of this kind exposed at Alexandria in
their time, then first mentioned in history, at an exhibition given by
Ptolemy Philadelphus at his accession to the crown, before the death of
his father, of which we have already made mention.
The principal reason of translating the word Reem, Unicorn, and not
Rhinoceros, is from a prejudice that he must have had but one horn.
But this is by no means so well-founded, as to be admitted as the only
argument for establishing the existence of an animal which never has
appeared, after the search of so many ages. Scripture speaks of the
horns of the unicorn[39], so that, even from this circumstance, the
reem may be the rhinoceros, as the Asiatic, and part of the African
rhinoceros, may be the unicorn. It is something remarkable, that,
notwithstanding Alexander’s expedition into India, this quadruped was
not known to Aristotle[40]. Strabo and Athenæus both speak of him from
report, as having been seen in Egypt. Pausanius calls him an Ethiopic
bull; the same manner the Romans called the elephants _Lucas bovis_,
Lucanian oxen, as being first seen in that part of Magna Grecia. Pompey
exhibited him first in Italy, and he was often produced in games as
low as Heliogabalus.
As all these were from Asia, it seems most probable they had but one
horn, and they are represented as such in the medals of Domitian.
Yet Martial[41] speaks of one with two horns; and the reality of the
rhinoceros so armed being till now uncertain, commentators have taken
pains to persuade us that this was an error of the poet; but there can
be now no doubt that the poet was right, and the commentators wrong, a
case that often happens.
I do not know from what authority the author of the Encyclopedia[42]
refers to the medals of Domitian, where the rhinoceros, he says,
has a double horn; in all those that have been published, one horn
only is figured. The use made of these horns is in the turning-loom;
they are made into cups, and sold to ignorant people as containing
antidotes against poisons; for this quality they generally make part
of the presents of the Mogul and kings of Persia at Constantinople.
Some modern naturalists have scarce yet given over this prejudice;
which might have had a possibility of truth while the Galenical school
flourished, and vegetable poisons were chiefly used; but it is absurd
to suppose, that what might discover solanum, or deadly night-shade,
upon contact, would have the like effect upon the application of
arsenic; and from experience I can pronounce, that a cup of this is
alike useless in the discovery or either. The handles of daggers are
always, in Abyssinia, made of this horn, and these being the only works
to which they are applied, is one of the reasons why I have said we
should not rashly pronounce that the Asiatic rhinoceros has but one
horn, merely because the foremost, or round horn, is the only one of
the many that have been sent from India. In Abyssinia we seldom see the
hunters at the pains to cut off or bring to market the second horn of
the rhinoceros they have slain, because, being flat, in place of round,
it has not diameter or substance enough to serve for the uses just
spoken of; so that the round horn is the only one that appears either
at Gondar or Cairo; and if we were to judge from this circumstance, the
African rhinoceros is unicorn for the same reason as we do the Asiatic.
The horns of this animal are hard and solid, of a reddish brown on the
outside, a yellow inclining to gold within, and the heart a spot of
black, which occupies the space of near two inches where the diameter
of the horn is five. The surface takes a perfect polish, but when dried
is very liable to splinter and crack. It likewise warps with heat,
and scratches easily. And this was the reason that, though exceeding
beautiful when new, it never would endure any time when made into the
form of a snuff-box, but warped and split with the heat of the pocket,
though this I believe was chiefly owing to the lamina, or flat pieces
into which it was cut, being always left too thin. The foremost of
these horns crook inward at the point, but by no means with so sudden a
curve as is represented by the Count de Buffon. How sensible the animal
is in this part, may be known from the accident I was eye-witness to
in hunting him at Tcherkin, where a musquet-ball breaking off a point
of that horn, gave him such a shock, as to deprive him for an instant
of all appearance of life. Behind the foremost, or crooked horn, is
the flat straight one, and again immediately behind that I have seen
distinctly the rudiments of a third, and the horn full an inch long. If
we may judge by its base, it would seem this third horn was intended to
be as long as the other two.
The hunters of these large beasts are called Agageer, from Agaro, to
kill, by cutting the hams or tendon of Achilles with a sword. I have
already described the manner of this hunting. These Agageers, the only
people that have an opportunity of observing, if they would only tell
what they do observe truly, say, they frequently see rhinoceroses
with three horns grown; that this last is round, but does not crook
at the point, and is not quite so long as are the other two, nor
tapered so much as the foremost or crooked one; but this I leave
entirely upon their veracity. I never did see the animal myself, nor
three grown-horns adhering to each other, as I have seen two. So if
this is truth, here is a third species of this quadruped. They say
the third horn is only upon the male, and does not grow till he is
advanced in years; the double horn which I have is fixed to a strong
muscle or cartilage; when dry, exceedingly tough. It comes down the
_os frontis_, and along the bone of the nose; but not having observed
accurately enough at the time the carcase was lying before me, I do not
remember how this muscle terminated or was made fast, either at the
occiput or on the nose. It has been imagined by several that the horn
of the rhinoceros and the teeth of the elephant were arms which nature
gave them against each other: that want of food, and vexation from
being deprived of their natural habits, may make any two beasts of
nearly equal strength fight or destroy each other, cannot be doubted;
and accordingly we see that the Romans made these two animals fight
at shows and public games: but this is not nature, but the artifice
of man; there must be some better reason for this extraordinary
construction of these two animals, as well as the different one of
that of so many others. They have been placed in extensive woods and
deserts, and there they hide themselves in the most inaccessible
places; food in great plenty is round about them; they are not
carnivorous, they are not rivals in love; what motive can they have for
this constant premeditated desire of fighting?
I have said the rhinoceros does not eat hay or grass, but lives
entirely upon trees; he does not spare the most thorny ones, but rather
seems to be fond of them; and it is not a small branch that can escape
his hunger, for he has the strongest jaws of any creature I know, and
best adapted to grinding or bruising any thing that makes resistance.
He has twenty-eight teeth in all, six of which are grinders, and I have
seen short indigested pieces of wood full three inches diameter voided
in his excrements, and the same of the elephant.
But besides these trees, capable of most resistance, there are in these
vast forests within the rains, trees of a softer consistence, and of
a very succulent quality, which seem to be destined for his principal
food. For the purpose of gaining the highest branches of these, his
upper lip is capable of being lengthened out so as to increase his
power of laying hold with this in the same manner as the elephant does
with his trunk. With this lip, and the assistance of his tongue, he
pulls down the upper branches which have most leaves, and these he
devours first; having stript the tree of its branches, he does not
therefore abandon it, but placing his snout as low in the trunk as he
finds his horn will enter, he rips up the body of the tree, and reduces
it to thin pieces, like so many laths; and when he has thus prepared
it, he embraces as much of it as he can in his monstrous jaws, and
twists it round with as much ease as an ox would do a root of celery,
or any such pot-herb or garden-stuff.
Such, too, is the practice of the elephant; we saw, at every step in
these immense forests, trees in different progresses of this operation,
some divested of their leaves and branches, and cut over as far down
the trunk as was soft, and pliable, and was capable of being snapped
off by one bite, without splitting or laceration; others, where the
trunk was cut into laths or ribbands, some of which were ate in part,
others prepared, but which had been left from satiety or apprehension
of danger, a feast without labour for the next that should find it. In
some places we saw the trees all consumed, but a stump that remained
about a foot from the ground, and these were of the most succulent
kind, and there we distinctly perceived the beginning of the first
laceration from the bottom; and what, beside the testimony of the
hunters, confirmed this fact beyond doubt was, that in several places
large pieces of the teeth of elephants, and horns of the rhinoceros
were brought to us, partly found lying on the ground at the foot of
these trees, and part sticking in them.
Neither the elephant nor rhinoceros eat grass; if their food depended
upon that, many times in the year they must be reduced to a state of
starving, for the grass is naturally parched up in some seasons, and
at others burnt purposely by the Shangalla. It is true, that in Europe
their chief food is hay; trees cannot be every day spoiled for them in
the quantity they would need. But this is not their natural food, more
than the sugar and the aquavitæ that are given them here.
The roughness of the tongue of the rhinoceros is another matter in
dispute: it is said to be so rough, that the animal with that can lick
off the flesh of a man’s bones. Others say, the tongue is so soft that
it resembles that of a calf. Both of these are in some measure true,
but aggravated by the reporters. The tongue of the young Rhinoceros
is soft, for the skin is much tougher and thicker too, than that of a
calf, and has apparently some furrows or wrinkles in it, but it has no
pustules nor rudiments of any that are discernible, nor indeed has any
use for them. On the other hand, the tongue and inside of the upper lip
of the old Rhinoceros are very rough, and this appears to me to arise
from the constant use he makes of these parts in seizing the branches
of trees which have rough barks, particularly the acacia. It is, when
pursued, and in fear, that we see he possesses an astonishing degree
of swiftness, considering his size, the apparent unwieldyness of his
body, his great weight before, and the shortness of his legs. He is
long, and has a kind of trot, which, after a few minutes, increases
in a great proportion, and takes in a great distance; but this is to
be understood with a degree of moderation. It is not true, that in a
plain he beats the horse in swiftness. I have passed him with ease,
and seen many worse mounted do the same, and though it is certainly
true, that a horse can very seldom come up with him, this is owing
to his cunning, but not his swiftness. He makes constantly from wood
to wood, and forces himself into the thickest part of them. The trees
that are frush, or dry, are broke down, like as with a cannon shot,
and fall behind him and on his side in all directions. Others that
are more pliable, greener, or fuller of sap, are bent back by his
weight and velocity of his motion. And after he has passed, restoring
themselves like a green branch to their natural position, they sweep
the uncautious pursuer and his horse from the ground, and dash them in
pieces against the surrounding trees.
The eyes of the Rhinoceros are very small, and he seldom turns his
head, and therefore sees nothing but what is before him. To this he
owes his death, and never escapes, if there is so much plain as to
enable the horse to get before him. His pride and fury, then, makes
him lay aside all thoughts of escaping but by victory over his enemy.
He stands for a moment at bay, then, at a start, runs straight forward
at the horse, like the wild boar, whom in his manner of action he
very much resembles. The horse easily avoids him, by turning short to
aside, and this is the fatal instant: The naked man, with the sword,
drops from behind the principal horseman, and unseen by the Rhinoceros,
who is seeking his enemy the horse, he gives him a stroke across the
tendon of the heel, which renders him incapable of further flight or
resistance.
In speaking of the great quantity of food necessary to support
this enormous mass, we must likewise consider the vast quantity of
water which he needs. No country but that of the Shangalla, which
he possesses, deluged with six months rains, and full of large and
deep basons, made in the living rock, and shaded by dark woods from
evaporation; or watered by large and deep rivers, which never fall
low or to a state of dryness, can supply the vast draughts of this
monstrous creature; but it is not for drinking alone that he frequents
wet and marshy places; large, fierce, and strong as he is, he must
submit to prepare to defend himself against the weakest of all
adversaries. The great consumption he constantly makes of food and
water necessarily confines him to certain limited spaces; for it is
not every place that can maintain him, he cannot emigrate, or seek his
defence among the sands of Atbara.
The fly, that unremitting persecutor of every animal that lives in
the black earth, does not spare the rhinoceros, nor is afraid of his
fierceness. He attacks him in the same manner as he does the camel,
and would as easily subdue him, but for a stratagem which he practises
for his preservation. The time of the fly being the rainy season,
the whole black earth, as I have already observed, turns into mire.
In the night when the fly is at rest, he chooses a convenient place,
and there rolling himself in the mud, he clothes himself with a kind
of case, which defends him against his adversary the following day.
The wrinkles and plaits of his skin serve to keep this muddy plaster
firm upon him, all but about his hips, shoulders, and legs, where
it cracks and falls off by motion, and leaves him exposed in those
places to the attacks of the fly. The itching and pain which follow
occasion him to rub himself in those parts against the roughest trees,
and this is at least one cause of the pustules or tubercules which
we see upon these places, both on the elephant and rhinoceros. The
Count de Buffon, who believes these pustules to be natural parts of
the creature, says, in proof of this, that they have been found in the
fœtus of a rhinoceros. I do not pretend to disbelieve this; it may be,
that these punctures happening to the old female at the time she was
with young, the impression of her sufferings might have appeared upon
the young one. However this is, I cannot conceal that I have heard, not
from hunters only, but men worthy of credit, that this is the origin
of these protuberances; and many rhinoceroses, slain in Abyssinia, are
known to have been found at the season of the fly, with their shoulders
and buttocks bloody and excoriated. It is likewise by no means true,
that the skin of the rhinoceros is hard or impenetrable like a board.
I should rather suspect this to be disease, or from a different habit
acquired by keeping; for in his wild state he is slain by javelins
thrown from indifferent hands, which I have seen buried three feet in
his body. A musket shot will go through him if it meets not with the
intervention of a bone; and the Shangalla kill him by the worst and
most inartificial arrows that ever were used by any people practising
that weapon, and cut him to pieces afterwards with the very worst of
knives.
I have said that, in the evening, he goes to welter in the mire. He
enjoys the rubbing himself there so much, and groans and grunts so
loud, that he is heard at a considerable distance. The pleasure that he
receives from this enjoyment, and the darkness of the night, deprive
him of his usual vigilance and attention. The hunters, guided by his
noise, steal secretly upon him, and, while lying on the ground, wound
him with their javelins mostly in the belly where the wound is mortal.
A surgeon of the Shaftesbury Indiaman was the first who observed and
mentioned a fact which has been rashly enough declared a fable[43].
He observed on a rhinoceros newly taken, after having weltered and
coated itself in mud, as above mentioned, several infects, such as
millepides, or scolopendra, concealed under the ply of the skin. With
all submission to my friend’s censure, I do not think he is in this
so right or candid as he usually is; not having been out of his own
country, at least in any country where he could have seen a rhinoceros
newly taken from weltering in the mud, he could not possibly be a judge
of this fact as the officer of the Shaftesbury was, who saw the animal
in that state. Every one, I believe, have seen horses and cows drinking
in foul water seized by leeches, which have bled them excessively, and
swelled under the animal’s tongue to a monstrous size. And I cannot
say, with all submission to better judgment, that it is more contrary
to the nature of things, that a leech should seize an animal, whose
custom is to welter in water, than a fly bite and deposit his eggs
in a camel in the sun-shine on land. But further I must bear this
testimony, that, while at Ras el Feel, two of these animals were slain
by the Ganjar hunters in the neighbourhood. I was not at the hunting,
but, though ill of the flux, I went there on horseback before they had
scraped off their muddy covering. Under the plies of one I saw two or
three very large worms, not carnivorous ones, but the common large
worm of the garden. I saw likewise several animals like earwigs, which
I took for young scolopendræ, and two small, white, land-snail shells.
I sought no further, but was told a number of different insects were
found, and some of them that sucked the blood, which I take to be a
kind of leech. There is then no sort of reason to accuse this gentleman
of telling a falsehood, only because he was a better observer, and had
better opportunities than others have had, and it is indeed neither
just nor decent; on the contrary, it is a coarse manner of criticising,
to tax a man with falsehood when he speaks as an eye-witness, and has
said nothing physically impossible.
The rhinoceros shewn at the fair of St Germain, that which the Count de
Buffon and Mr Edwards saw, kept clean in a stable for several years, I
shall believe had neither worms nor scolopendræ upon it, neither does
this officer of the Shaftesbury report it had; but he says, that one
covered with mud, in which it had been weltering, had upon it animals
that are commonly found in that mud; and this neither Mr Parsons nor Mr
Edwards, nor the Count de Buffon, ever had an opportunity of verifying.
Chardin[44] says, that the Abyssinians tame and train the rhinoceros
to labour. This is an absolute fable; besides, that we have reason
to believe the animal is not capable of instruction, neither history
not tradition ever gave the smallest reason to make us believe this,
nor is there any motive for attempting the experiment, more than for
believing it ever was accomplished. Tractable as the elephant, is,
the Abyssinians never either tamed or instructed him; they never made
use of beasts in war, nor would their country permit this training; so
much the contrary, as we have already seen, that Ptolemy Philadelphus,
and his successor Ptolemy Evergetes, did every thing in their power
to persuade them to take the elephant alive, that they might tame
them; but, as he was a principal part of their food, they never
could succeed; and the latter prince, for this very purpose, made an
expedition into Abyssinia, and was obliged to extirpate these hunters,
and settle in their place a colony of his own at Arkeeko near Masuah,
which he called Ptolemais Theron for that very reason; after which, he
himself tells us in the long Greek inscription he left in the kingdom
of Adel, that he had succeeded so far, by means of his colony of
Greeks, as to train the Ethiopic elephant so as to make him superior to
those in India; but this he could never do by employing Abyssinians.
It is a general observation made in every part where this animal
resides, that he is indocile, and wants talents; his fierceness may
be conquered, and we see, with a moderate degree of attention, he is
brought to be quiet enough; but it is one thing to tame or conquer
his fierceness, and another to make him capable of instruction;
and it seems apparently allowed to be his case, that he has not
capacity. A steady, uniform fierceness in the brute creation, is to
be subdued by care and by hunger, this is not the case with him, his
violent transports of fury upon being hungry, or not being served
in the instant with food, seems to bar this manner of taming him.
His behaviour is not that of any other animal; his revenge and fury
are directed as much against himself as against an enemy; he knocks
his head against the wall, or the manger, with a seeming intention
to destroy himself, nay, he does destroy himself often. That sent
from India to Emanuel king of Portugal, in the year 1513, and by him
presented to the pope, was the cause the ship[45] that carried him was
sunk and lost, and the one that was shewn in France purposely drowned
itself going to Italy.
The rhinoceros and the elephant are the principal food of the
Shangalla. The manner of preparing the flesh I have already described,
and shall not repeat. He is ate too with great greediness by all the
inhabitants of the low country, and Atbara. The most delicate part
about him is supposed to be the soles of his feet, which are soft like
those of a camel, and of a gristly substance; the rest of the flesh
seems to resemble that of the hog, but is much coarser. It smells of
musk, and is otherwise very tasteless; I should think it would be more
so to the negroes and hunters, who eat it without salt. The only hair
about it is at the tip of its tail; they are there few and scattered,
but thick as the lowest wire of a harpsichord; ten of these, fastened
side by side, at the distance of half an inch from each other, in the
figure of a man’s hand, make a whip which will bring the blood every
stroke.
This rhinoceros was thirteen feet from the nose to its anus; and very
little less than seven feet when he stood, measuring from the sole of
his fore-foot to the top of the shoulder. The first horn was fourteen
inches. The second something less than thirteen inches. The flat part
of the horn, where it was bare at its base, and divested of hair, was
four inches, and the top two inches and a half broad. In the middle it
was an inch and quarter thick; it was shaped like a knife; the back two
inches, and, when turned, measured one fourth of an inch at the edge.