Notes and Queries, Number 58, December 7, 1850 | Page 2

seem to show that he was
describing from his own observation;" and he infers that the animal was
found at that time as far north as the Delta, from the fact, mentioned by
Herodotus, of its being held sacred in the nome of Papremis. But, in the
first place, it does not follow that, because the hippopotamus was held
sacred in the Papremitic nome, it was found in the {458} Nile as low as
that district. In the next place, there is nothing in the words of
Herodotus to indicate that he had seen the object of his description. (ii.

71.) On the other hand, the substance of his description tends strongly
to the inference that he had not seen the animal. It is difficult to
conceive that any eye-witness could have described a hippopotamus as
having the hoofs of an ox, with the mane and tail of a horse. His
information as to javelins being made of its skin was doubtless correct,
and he may perhaps have seen some of these weapons. Cuvier
conjectures that the original author of the description in Herodotus had
seen only the teeth and some part of the skin of the real hippopotamus;
but that the other particulars were taken from a figure or description of
the gnu (Trad. de Pline, tom. vi. p. 444.) This supposition is
improbable, for the gnu is an animal of Southern Africa, and was
doubtless unknown to the Egyptians in the time of Herodotus.
Moreover, Cuvier is in error as to the statement of Herodotus
respecting the animal's size: he says that the animal is equal in size, not
to an ass, but to the largest ox. The statement as to the ass is to be
found in Arist. Hist. An., ii. 7. Cuvier's note is hastily written; for he
says that Diodorus describes the hippopotamus as equalling the
strongest bulls,--a statement not to be found in Diodorus. (i. 35.) His
judgment, however, is clear, as to the point that none of the ancient
naturalists described the hippopotamus from autopsy. The writer of the
accurate history of the hippopotamus in the Penny Cyclopædia, vol. xii.
p. 247., likewise takes the same view. If Achilles Tatius is correct in
stating that "the horse of the Nile" was the native Egyptian name of the
animal, it is probable that the resemblance to the horse indicated in the
description of Herodotus, was supplied by the imagination of some
informant.
In the mosaic of Palestrina (see Barthelemy in Mém. de l'Acad. des
Inscript., tom. xxx. p. 503.), the hippopotamus appears three times in
the lower part of the composition, at the left-hand corner. Two entire
figures are represented, and one head of an animal sinking into the river.
Men in a boat are throwing darts at them, some of which are sticking in
their backs. (See Ib. p. 521.) Diodorus (i. 35.) describes the
hippopotamus as being harpooned, and caught in a manner similar to
the whale. Barthelemy properly rejects the supposition that the mosaic
of Palestrina is the one alluded to by Pliny (Hist. Nat. xxxvi. 64.) as
having been constructed by Sylla. He places it in the time of Hadrian,

and supposes it to represent a district of Upper Egypt, with which the
introduction of the hippopotamus well accords. The true form of the
hippopotamus was unknown in Italy in the time of Sylla.
The word [Greek: hippopotamos] as used by the Latin writers, instead
of [Greek: hippos potamios] occurs in Lucian (Rhet. Præcept., c. 6.).
The author of the Cynegetica, who addresses his poem to the Emperor
Caracalla, describes the hippopotamus under the name of [Greek:
hippagros], "the wild horse," compounded like [Greek: onagros] (iii.
251-61.). In this passage the old error as to the cloven hoofs and the
mane is repeated. It is added that the animal will not endure captivity;
but if any one is snared by means of ropes, he refuses to eat or drink.
That this latter statement is fabulous, is proved by the hippopotamus
taken alive to Constantinople, and by the very tame animal now in the
Zoological Garden.
The fable about the hippopotamus destroying its father and violating its
mother, cited before from Damascius, is to be found in Plutarch, De
Solert. Anim., c. 4. Pausan. (viii. 46. § 4.) mentions a Greek statue, in
which the face was made of the teeth of the hippopotamus instead of
ivory.
An interesting account of the younger hippopotamus in the Zoological
Garden, by Professor Owen, may be seen in the Annals and Magazine
of Natural History for June last.
L.
* * * * *
PARALLEL PASSAGES: COLERIDGE, HOOKER, BUTLER.
I do not remember to have seen the following parallels pointed out.
Coleridge. The Nightingale. A conversation poem:
"The nightingale-- 'Most musical, most melancholy' bird! A
melancholy