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For the bearing of cc. 70, 71 on the relations of H. and Hecataeus cf. 68. 1 n., and Intr. pp. 22-6.

δελεάσῃ: sc. θηρευτής; supplied from ἄγραι.

κατ᾽ ὦν ἔπλασε: cf. 40. 2 n. In spite of its sacredness the crocodile was hunted in some places, e.g. at Tentyra (Ael. N. H. x. 21). Crocodiles are now seen only occasionally, even as high up as Abu Hammed, i.e. above the Third Cataract (Baedeker, p. 322).

The hippopotamus now is not seen north of the Third Cataract, but the monuments show that it was once found even in the Delta; Hogarth (A. A. L. p. 100) says there is good evidence for one having been killed there in 1818, and traditions of it still survive in the marshes. H. is wrong in his negative statement, for it was a sacred animal in some places, e.g. Thebes, though hated in others as the symbol of Set (Typhon); there seems no other trace of its connexion with Paprensis. Of H.'s description it can at best be said that it is highly impressionist. The hippopotamus has not a ‘cloven hoof’, nor has it a ‘horse's mane’ and ‘tail’ (it really is almost hairless); and it is much bigger than an ox. But its teeth are prominent, the lower ones are often over five feet long, and it is certainly σιμός. The resemblance to a horse can be well seen in Dugmore's photographs (p. 90, Camera Adventures, 1910). H., or his informant, however, must have had a very flying glimpse of behemoth. Aristotle (502 a, 9-15), H. A. ii. 7, copies H.'s account almost verbally without naming him; he corrects him by substituting κέρκον ὑός for the ‘horse's tail’, and by half-concealing the tusks (ὑποφαινομένους); on the other hand he says that the hippopotamus is only ‘as big as an ass’, which is a change for the worse.

ξυστόν is the part, ‘the shaft,’ ἀκόντιον the whole. The hide was more frequently used for whips, the well-known ‘Kurbash’, and for shields.

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    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 10.21
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