The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 2 (of 6)

Chapter 132: CHAP. 29. (20.)—THE RHINOCEROS.

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The volume assembles an encyclopedic survey of the known world and its living inhabitants, moving from detailed regional geography and descriptions of seas, rivers, islands, and peoples to extended treatments of humanity, its generation, anatomy, and the origins and inventions of arts. Subsequent books catalog terrestrial animals—their habits, capture, and uses—followed by comprehensive observations on fish and marine creatures, their sizes and behaviors. Accounts mix naturalistic description, reported marvels, medicinal uses derived from animals, and travel and secondhand reports, organized as topical chapters intended as a practical compendium of natural and human phenomena.

CHAP. 29. (20.)—THE RHINOCEROS.

At the same games the rhinoceros was also exhibited, an animal which has a single horn projecting from the nose;1711 it has been frequently seen since then. This too is another natural-born enemy of the elephant.1712 It prepares itself for the combat by sharpening its horn against the rocks; and in fighting directs it chiefly against the belly of its adversary, which it knows to be the softest part. The two animals are of equal length, but the legs of the rhinoceros are much the shorter: its skin is the colour of box-wood.