amus; 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
Cyclopaedia_, 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 _Mem. 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. Praecept._, 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.). I