Hippomenes

in Greek legend, a handsome youth who, with the aid of Aphrodite, won Atalanta for his wife by beating that swift-footed maiden in a race. The couple were very happy, and in their prosperity forgot to pay due honor to the goddess who had made the match. As a punishment she caused them to offend Cybele, who straight-way transformed the pair into lions and compelled them to draw her chariot.

Hippopotamus (Greek, river horse), a ponderous aquatic quadruped. Of the three huge hog-like animals of Africa, the ugliest and most forbidding is its river-horse. It is about five feet high. The body is shaped not unlike that of an elephant or a rhinoceros, and is rather between them in weight. The skin is about two inches thick on the back and sides, and is almost hairless, but is lubricated by a sort of oil exuded through the pores. The legs are ponderous and very short. The feet are broad. Each terminates in four separately hoofed toes. The head is enormous. The eyes are set well up, so that the hippopotamus can raise them above the water without exposing much of its head. The snout is large, having swollen lips and a set of large front teeth. The canine teeth are curved forward. They furnish ivory of superior quality, reaching a length of two feet and a weight of about six pounds each.

The hippopotamus is a good swimmer, and is able to dive, remaining under water for a considerable length of time. The young hippopotamus, pink, and as fat as a pig, rides on his mother's shoulders. He is a good diver too. When he wants his dinner he plunges beneath his mother's body. He seems able to remain there an indefinite length of time. The hippopotamus conceals itself in the water during the day time, and ranges abroad in herds at night for vegetable food. It is considered exceedingly destructive. It is found only in the rivers and ponds of Africa. It was formerly abundant and was much hunted by the natives both for its flesh and for ivory, but its range has lately been restricted to the upper Nile and to interior, inaccessible waters.

The hippopotamus was shown in Europe for the first time about 1850. The huge, waddling, three-ton hippopotamus is entirely too large for capture and transportation. The hippopotamus of the menagerie is taken when small and is reared for show purposes. The hunters in their canoes catch sight of a likely chap riding on his mother's back in the river. They close in and kill the mother with a harpoon. When her struggles are over they capture the little fellow, who stays by his mother's side, squealing to the last. They put him in a tank cage and supply him with goat's milk. When old enough to live on a partly vegetable diet he is shipped over seas, probably to Hamburg. With proper care the young prisoner becomes quite friendly and playful. The business of hunting the hippopotamus is not without danger. When infuriated by wounds or pursuit the adult rushes upon the hunters, and is quite capable of crushing the largest rowboat with a single snap of the jaws. The unlucky hunter who comes in the way meets the same fate. A well grown menagerie hippopotamus is valued at $15,000.

See Rhinoceros; Elephant; Tapir

We were soon among the hippopotami. Every two or three hundred yards, and at every bend of the river, we came upon a herd of from five to twenty. To us in a steam launch they threatened no resistance or danger. But their inveterate hostility to canoes leads to repeated loss of life among the native fishermen, whose frail craft are crumpled like eggshells in the snap of enormous jaws. Indeed, all the way from here to Nimule they are declared to be the scourge and terror of the Nile. Fancy mistaking a hippopotamus-almost the largest surviving mammal in the world-for a water-lily! Yet nothing is more easy. The whole river is dotted with floating lilies detached from any root and drifting along contentedly with the current. It is the habit of the hippo to loll in the water, showing only his eyes and the tips of his ears, and perhaps now and again a glimpse of his nose, and thus concealed his silhouette is, at three hundred yards, almost indistinguishable from the floating vegetation. I thought they also looked like giant cats peeping. So soon, however, as they saw us coming round a corner and heard the throbbing of the propeller, they would raise their whole heads out of the water to have a look, and then immediately dive to the bottom in disgust. Our practice was then to shut off steam and drift silently down upon them. In this way one arrives in the middle of the herd, and when curiosity or want of air compels them to come up again there is a chance of a shot. One great fellow came up to breathe within five yards of the boat, and the look of astonishment, of alarm, of indignation, in his large expressive eyes-as with one vast snort he plunged below-was comical to see. These creatures are not easy to kill. They bob up in the most unexpected quarters, and are down again in a second. One does not like to run the risk of merely wounding them, and the target presented is small and vanishing. I shot one who sunk with a harsh sort of scream and thud of striking bullet. We waited about a long time for him to float up to the surface, but in vain, for he must have been carried into or under a bed of reeds and could not be retrieved.-Winston Churchill, M. P., in the Strand Magazine.