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 fœtus. 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 fœtus 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.
SUPPLEMENT.