After the elephant the Rhinoceros (_fig. 124._) is the most powerful
of quadrupeds; he is at least twelve feet in length, from the
extremity of the snout to the tail; six or seven feet in height,
and the circumference of his body is nearly equal to his length. In
bulk, therefore, he nearly resembles the elephant, and if he appears
smaller, it is because his legs are shorter in proportion than those
of the elephant. But he differs widely from that sagacious animal by
his natural faculties and intelligence, having received from Nature
merely what she grants in common to all animals. He is deprived of
all feeling in his skin; he has no organ to answer the purpose of
hands, to give him a distinct sense of touching; instead of a trunk
he has only a moveable lip, in which centres all his dexterity. He
is superior to other animals only in strength, magnitude, and the
offensive weapon, which he carries upon his nose, and which is peculiar
to him. This weapon is a very hard horn, solid throughout, and placed
more advantageously than the horn of ruminating animals; those only
protect the superior parts of the head and neck, whilst the horn of the
rhinoceros defends all the exterior parts of the muzzle, the mouth, and
the face, from insult. For this reason the tiger attacks more readily
the elephant, whose trunk he can seize, than the rhinoceros, which he
cannot attack in front without running the danger of having his inside
torn out; for the body and limbs are covered with so impenetrable a
skin that he fears neither the claws of the tiger nor lion, nor the
fire and weapons of the huntsman. His skin is blackish, of the same
colour, but thicker and harder than that of the elephant; nor does
he feel the sting of flies. He cannot contract nor extend his skin;
it is folded by large wrinkles on the neck, shoulders, and rump to
facilitate the motion of his head and legs, which last are massive,
and terminated by large feet, armed with three great toes. His head is
larger in proportion than that of the elephant, but his eyes are still
smaller, which he seldom opens entirely. The upper jaw projects above
the lower, and the upper lip is moveable, and may be lengthened six
or seven inches; it is terminated by a sharp edge, which gives the
animal the power to gather grass and divide it into handfuls, as the
elephant does with his trunk. This muscular and flexible lip is a sort
of imperfect trunk which is equally capable of seizing with force, and
feeling with delicacy. Instead of those long ivory tusks, which form
the weapons of the elephant, the rhinoceros has a powerful horn, and
two strong incisive teeth in each jaw: these teeth, which the elephant
has not, are placed at a great distance, one in each corner or angle
of the jaws; the under jaw is square before, and there are no other
incisive teeth in all the interior part, which is covered by the lips;
but, independently of these four incisive teeth, placed in the four
corners of the mouth, he has twenty-four smaller teeth, six on each
side of each jaw. His ears are always erect; they are in form like
those of the hog, only they are smaller in proportion to his body, and
they are the only hairy parts about him. The end of the tail, like that
of the elephant, is furnished with a tuft of large bristles, very hard
and very solid.
Mr. Parsons, a celebrated physician in London, to whom the republic of
letters is indebted for several discoveries in Natural History, and to
whom I am under obligations for the marks of esteem and friendship
he has honoured me with, published in 1744, a Natural History of the
Rhinoceros, of which I shall give an extract with more willingness,
because whatever Mr. Parsons has written deserves credit and attention.
"Though the rhinoceros was often seen at the spectacles at Rome,
from the time of Pompey to that of Heliogabalus, though many have
been transported into Europe in these last ages, and though Bontius,
Chardin, and Kolbe, have drawn this figure, both in the Indies and
Africa, yet he was so badly represented, and his description was so
incorrect, that he was known very imperfectly, until those which
arrived in London in 1739 and 1741, were inspected, when the errors or
caprices of those who had published figures of him became very visible.
That of Albert Durer, which was the first, is the least conformable to
Nature; it has, nevertheless, been copied by most naturalists; and some
of them have loaded it with false drapery, and foreign ornaments. That
of Bontius is more simple and more true; but the inferior part of the
legs is badly delineated. On the contrary, that of Chardin represents
naturally the foldings of the skin and feet, but in other respects does
not resemble the animal. That of Camerarius is not better; nor is
that drawn from the rhinoceros which was in London in 1685, and which
was published by Carwitham in 1739. Those which were engraved on the
ancient pavement of Præneste, or on the medals of Domitian, are very
imperfect; but they have not the imaginary ornaments given to that of
Albert Durer." Dr. Parsons has taken the trouble to draw this animal
himself in three different views, before, behind, and in profile; and
particular parts from other rhinoceroses which are preserved in the
cabinets of Natural History.
The rhinoceros which arrived in London in 1739, was sent from Bengal:
though not more than two years old, the expences of his food, and of
his voyage, amounted to near one thousand pounds sterling. He was
fed with rice, sugar, and hay; they gave him daily seven pounds of
rice, mixed with three pounds of sugar, which they divided into three
portions: he had also hay and green herbage, to the last of which he
gave the preference. His drink was water, of which he drank great
quantities at a time. He was of a quiet disposition, and suffered all
parts of his body to be felt. He grew unruly upon being struck, or
when he was hungry; and in both cases he could only be appeased by
giving him something to eat. When he was angry he leaped forwards with
impetuosity, and raised himself to a great height, and rushed furiously
against the walls with his head, and which he did with a prodigious
quickness, notwithstanding his heavy appearance and massive corpulence.
"I have often been witness (says Dr. Parsons) of those motions produced
by impatience or anger, especially in the morning before his rice and
sugar were brought him. The quickness and celerity of the motions of
this animal made me of opinion that he is absolutely unconquerable,
and that he would easily overtake any man who should have given him
offence."
This rhinoceros, when two years old, was not higher than a young cow
who had never had any young; but his body was very long and very thick.
His head was large in proportion to his body; taking it from the ears
to the horn of the nose, it formed a concavity, the extremities of
which, that is, the upper end of the snout, and the part near the ears
are very high. The horn, not then an inch long, was black, smooth
at the end, but wrinkled and directed backwards at the base. His
nostrils were not above an inch from the mouth; the under lip was
like that of a ox, but the upper resembled that of an horse, with this
difference and advantage, that the rhinoceros can lengthen, direct,
turn it round a stick, and seize with it those objects which he wants
to carry to his mouth. The tongue of this young rhinoceros was soft
like that of a calf; his eyes had no vivacity, they were formed like
those of a hog, and were placed very low, that is, near the opening
of the nostrils. His ears were large, thin towards the end, and bound
up with a sort of wrinkle at the origin. His neck was very short, the
skin forming on this part two large foldings which surround him. His
shoulders were very thick, and at their juncture there was another
fold of skin which comes under the fore legs. The body of this young
rhinoceros was very thick, and resembled that of a cow ready to bring
forth. There was another fold betwixt the body and the rump, which
descends under the hind legs; and lastly, there was another fold which
transversally surrounds the lower part of the crupper, at some distance
from the tail. The belly was very big, and hung down to the ground,
especially the middle part; the legs were round, thick, strong, and
bent backward at the joint, which was covered by a remarkable fold
of the skin when the animal laid down, but it disappeared when he
was standing. The tail was thin and short, compared to the volume of
the body; that of this rhinoceros was not above seventeen inches in
length; it is a little thicker at the extremity, which is covered with
hard, short and thick hair. The sexual organ of the rhinoceros is of
an extraordinary form; it is contained in a sort of case, like that of
a horse, and the first thing which appears when irritated is a second
prepuce of flesh colour, from which issues a hollow pipe, in form of
a funnel, like a fleur de luce. It not being in a straight direction,
but rather inclining backward, he emits his urine behind, and from
which it appears their copulation must be different from other animals.
The female has the exterior parts of generation situated like those
of the cow, and she resembles perfectly the male in the size and form
of the body. The skin is thick and impenetrable; in taking the folds
with the hand, it feels like a wooden plank half an inch thick. "When
it is tanned (says Dr. Grew) it is excessively hard, and thicker than
the skin of any other terrestrial animal." It is every where more or
less covered with incrustations, in the shape of galls, which are
small on the summit of the neck and back, but becomes bigger down the
sides; the largest are on the shoulders and crupper, the thighs, and
around the legs, down to the feet; but betwixt the folds the skin is
penetrable, and even tender, and as soft as silk, while the outward
part of the folds is as rough as the rest. This tender skin between the
folds is of flesh colour, and the skin of the belly is nearly of the
same colour and consistence; but those galls, or tuberosities, should
not, as some authors have done, be compared to scales, as they are
mere callosities of the skin, irregular in their figure and symmetry
in their respective positions. The suppleness of the skin in the folds
gives the rhinoceros the power of moving his head, neck, and limbs,
with facility. The whole body, except at the joints, is inflexible,
like a cuirass. Dr. Parsons says, that this animal hearkened with a
sort of continual attention to any kind of noise; so that if he was
even sleeping, eating, or satisfying other urgent wants, he instantly
raised up his head, and listened till the noise had ceased.
In fine, after giving this exact description of the rhinoceros, Dr.
Parsons examines whether the rhinoceros with a double horn exists, and
having compared the relations of ancients and moderns, and the remains
of this variety, found in the collections of natural objects, he
concludes, with some probability, that the rhinoceroses of Asia have
commonly but one horn, and those of Africa, generally two.
It is certain that some rhinoceroses have but one horn, and others
have two; but it is not equally certain that this variety is constant,
and depends on the climate of Africa or India, or that two distinct
species may be established from these differences. It seems that
the rhinoceroses with one horn have it bigger and longer than those
who have two. There are single horns of three feet and a half, and,
perhaps, of more than four feet in length, by six, or seven inches in
diameter at the base. Some double horns are but two feet in length.
Commonly these horns are brown, or olive colour, though some are grey,
and even white. They have only a small concavity, in form of a cup,
under their base, by which they are fastened to the skin of the nose;
the remaining part of the horn is solid, and very hard. It is with this
weapon that the rhinoceros is said to attack, and sometimes mortally
wound, the biggest elephants, whose long legs give the rhinoceros
an opportunity of striking them with his snout and horn under their
bellies, where the skin is tender, and penetrable; but if he misses
the first blow the elephant throws him on the ground and kills him.
The horn of the rhinoceros is more valued by the Indians than the ivory
of the elephant, not so much on account of its real use, though they
make several things of it with the chisel, but for divers specific
virtues, and medicinal properties, which they ascribe to it. The white,
from being the most rare, are also those which they value most. Among
the presents which the king of Siam sent to Louis XIV. in 1686, were
six horns of the rhinoceros. We have seen in the king's cabinet twelve
of different sizes, and one of them, though mutilated, is three feet
eight inches and a half in length.
The rhinoceros, without being ferocious, carnivorous, or even very
wild, is, nevertheless, untractable. He is of the nature of a hog,
blunt and brutal, without intellects, sentiment, or docility. He is
subject to fits of fury, that nothing can calm; for the rhinoceros,
which Emanuel, king of Portugal, sent to the Pope in 1513, was the
cause of the ship being destroyed in which he was transporting; and
that which we saw at Paris was drowned in the same manner, in going
over to Italy. These animals, also like the hog, are much inclined to
wallow in the mire. They like damp and marshy places, and seldom leave
the banks of rivers. They are found in Asia and Africa, in Bengal,
Siam, Laos, Mogul, Sumatra, Java, in Abyssinia, in Ethiopia, in the
country of the Anzicos, and as far as the Cape of Good Hope. But in
general the species is not so numerous, or so universally spread, as
that of the elephant. The female brings forth but one young, and that
at a great distance of time. In the first month the rhinoceros is not
much bigger than a large dog; he has no horn when first brought forth,
although the rudiment of it is seen in the foetus. When he is two years
old his horn is not above an inch long; and in his sixth year it is
about ten inches; and as some of these horns are very near four feet
long, it appears that they grow till the half, or, perhaps, during the
whole life of the animal, which must be long, since the rhinoceros,
described by Dr. Parsons, was not come to half his growth at two years
old, which makes it probable that this animal, like man, lives to
seventy or eighty years.
Without the capacity of being useful like the elephant, the rhinoceros
is equally hurtful from the prodigious devastation which he makes in
the fields. He has no one advantageous quality while alive. His flesh
is excellent, according to the taste of the Indians and Negroes: Kolbe
says, he has often eaten it with pleasure. His skin makes the best
and hardest leather in the world; and not only his horn, but all the
other parts of his body, and even his blood, urine, and excrements,
are esteemed as antidotes against poison, or remedies against several
diseases. These antidotes, or remedies, extracted from different
parts of the rhinoceros, are of the same use in the dispensatory of
the Indians, as the theriaca is in that of Europe. Probably, all
those virtues are imaginary:--But how many things are held in great
estimation, which have no value but in opinion!
The rhinoceros feeds upon coarse herbs, such as thistles and prickly
shrubs, and he prefers this wild food to the sweet pasture of the
verdant meadows. He is fond of sugar canes, and eats also all sorts
of corn. Having no taste for flesh, he neither molests small animals,
nor fears the large ones, but lives in peace with them all, not
excepting the tiger, who often accompanies, without daring to attack
him; therefore, I doubt, whether the battles betwixt the elephant
and rhinoceros, have any foundation; they must at least be seldom,
since there is no motive for war on either side; and, besides, no
sort of antipathy has been observed between these animals. Some even
in captivity have lived quietly together, without giving offence or
provocation. Pliny is, I believe, the first who has mentioned these
battles betwixt the rhinoceros and elephant. It seems they were
compelled to fight in the spectacles at Rome, and, probably from thence
the idea has been taken, that when in their natural state they fought
as desperately; but every action without a motive is unnatural; it is
an effect without a cause, which cannot happen but by chance.
The rhinoceroses do not herd together, nor march in troops like the
elephants; they are more wild and solitary, and perhaps more difficult
to hunt and subdue. They never attack men unless provoked; but then
they become furious, and are very formidable. Neither scymetars, darts,
nor lances, can make an incision upon his skin, which even resists
musket balls; the only places penetrable in his body are the belly,
the eyes, and round the ears; so that the hunters, instead of facing
and attacking this animal, follow him at a distance by his track,
and wait till he lies down to rest or sleep. We have in the king's
cabinet a foetus of a rhinoceros, which was extracted from the body
of the mother, and sent from the island of Java: it was said, in a
memorial which accompanied this present, that twenty-eight huntsmen
having assembled to attack this rhinoceros, they followed her at a
distance for some days, one or two walking now and then before to
reconnoitre her situation; by these means they surprised her when she
was asleep, and silently came so near that they discharged at once
their twenty-eight guns into the lower parts of her belly.
From the description given by Dr. Parsons, it appears that this animal
has a good ear, and even very attentive: it is also affirmed, that his
sense of smelling is excellent; but it is said that he has not a good
eye, and sees only those things which are before him: his eyes are so
small, and placed so low, and obliquely, they have so little vivacity
and motion, that this fact seems to be confirmed. His voice, when he
is calm, resembling the grunting of a hog; but when he is angry, it is
sharp, and heard at a great distance. Though he lives upon vegetables,
he does not ruminate: thus, it is probable, that, like the elephant,
he has but one stomach, and very large bowels, which supply the office
of many stomachs. His consumption of food, though very great, is not
comparable to that of the elephant, and it appears, by the thickness of
his skin, that he loses much less than the latter by perspiration.