Animal products; . y greatly prize and will pay twelve dollars perfrasilah, for the spoils of the kobaoba, or long-horned whiterhinoceros, which, however, appears no longer to exist in thelatitudes westward of Zanzibar island. A long perfect horn sometimes sells in China as high as ^20,but those that come from Africa do not usually fetch above £6or £l each. The principal use of these horns is in medicine andfor amulets, for only one good cup can be carved from the end ofeach horn, and consequently the parings and fragments are allpreserved. 3J tons of these horns were imported into London in 1
Animal products; . y greatly prize and will pay twelve dollars perfrasilah, for the spoils of the kobaoba, or long-horned whiterhinoceros, which, however, appears no longer to exist in thelatitudes westward of Zanzibar island. A long perfect horn sometimes sells in China as high as ^20,but those that come from Africa do not usually fetch above £6or £l each. The principal use of these horns is in medicine andfor amulets, for only one good cup can be carved from the end ofeach horn, and consequently the parings and fragments are allpreserved. 3J tons of these horns were imported into London in 1874. 370 THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. Good sound rhinoceros horns of 28 to 32 inches long will fetch4*. to $s. per lb.; smaller ones, from 13 to 25 inches long, \ is. 6d. per lb. Hippopotamus.—This thick-skinned animal (Hippopotamus am-phibius) is a native of Africa, and is well known now to mostpersons by the specimens to be seen in the Zoological Gardens,Regents Park. It is popularly termed the sea-cow by the Dutch. HIPPOPuTAMUS AMPJtilBIUS. settlers of Southern Africa. The interest attaching to this animalfrom an economic point of view is rather limited, being chieflyconfined to a local use of its skin and flesh in Africa and thelimited application of its powerful teeth or tusks as a substitutefor true ivory. Livingstone found the Kafue river (in 160) full of hippopotami,the young being perched on the necks of their dams. About athousand of these large animals must have been slaughteredyearly to meet the demand for this ivory. The flesh of the hippopotamus is delicate and succulent. Thelayer of fat next the skin makes excellent bacon, technicallydenominated hippopotamus speck at the Cape. Dr. Schwein-furth says that when boiled, hippopotamus fat is very similar topork lard, though in the warm climate of Central Africa it neverattains a consistency firmer than that of oil. Of all animal fats itappears to be the purest, and, at any rate, never becomes rancid,and will keep for ma
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