Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

We have now in this city, and for the first time, at least in many years, a fine specimen of this interesting animal. It was captured by a boat’s crew from a New Bedford vessel at the mouth of a river in Africa. There are two in the Paris Museum, but we believe none like this in the United States. No animal possesses more singular appearance, none has more curious habits. The mouth and teeth have greatly attracted the attention of naturalists while the ivory of the canine teeth is highly prized by dentists who pay a large price for them-as much as $5 a pound. At the Cape of Good Hope the flesh is deemed excellent food, and the fat lying immediately under the skin is considered a great dainty. Whips are made out of the skin, which are light and yet durable. It is a great question, still undecided, whether there is one or more of the species now existing.
It is supposed by some that it is the same beast described in the Bible as the Behemoth, but Cuvier thinks the account of it by Job too vague to make the identity very apparent. The ancients had a familiarity with it, through the writings of Herodotus, Aristotle, Diodorus and Pliny. During the Empire, Hippopotami were frequently exhibited in the triumphal shows of the successful Generals of Rome. The Emperor Commodus, a man of great strength, exhibited five at once and killed one in public with his own hand. The contest must have been somewhat unequal, in the arena of an amphitheater. At one time they disappeared from Egypt, but afterwards returned. In some places they are deemed sacred, and received worship; but generally they were the cause of too much terror to be petted in this way.
Modern travelers in Africa have repeatedly seen and described them, and their locality is considered to be confined to the great Rivers and Lakes of that country. Their food is chiefly of hard stout vegetables on the banks of streams, which is bruised rather than ground, and when transmitted to the stomach it has gone but very little alteration. The Hippopotamus is able to live a long time under water, and has some way of closing its nostrils while there. When it seeks the land it does immense injury to vegetation by trampling it underfoot. The natives are always on the alert to kill it when they can. We find many curious anecdotes related of it by Vaillant, Sarman and Captain Taches, the latter of whom says its cry may be expressed by these words-Heurh, heurh, heoh, heoh.