Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/895

HIPPOLYTUS, St, according to the Roman breviary, was one of St Lawrence s converts, who, when summoned before the emperor Valerian on account of the practice of his religion, made a public profession of Christianity. First beaten with rods, he was finally delivered over along with all his family to death, the mode of execution in his case being similar to that by which Hippolytus the son of Theseus perished. The mythical character of this legend, which, however, can in part be traced as far back as to Prudentius (Hym. 11), is recognized by Db llinger (see his Hippolytus u. Kallistus, chap. ii.). This saint, along with Casianus, is commemorated by the Roman Church on August 13. He is the patron of Mexico.

HIPPONAX, of Ephesus, a poet placed third, after Archilochus and Simonides, among the classic iambic poets of Greece. Expelled from Ephesus in 540 b.c. by the tyrants Athenagoras and Comas, he took refuge in Clazomenpe. There his deformed figure and malicious disposition exposed him to the caricature of the Chian sculptors Bupalus and Athenis ; and he revenged himself by issuing against them a series of satires. These, though keen and bitter, are in thought and execution much inferior to the similar works of his predecessor Archilochus. His coarseness of thought and feeling, his rude vocabulary, his want of graca and taste, and his numerous allusions to matters of merely local interest prevented his becoming a favourite in Attica. He invented epic parody, and the four opening lines of a parody on the Iliad have been preserved in Athenseus (xv. 698 B). He was also the inventor of a peculiar metre, used after him by many writers, called the scazon or ckoliambus, which substitutes a spondee for the final iambus of an iambic senarius. His works, which were annotated by Hermippus of Smyrna, were at an early date mingled and confused with those of Ananius, for whom some even claim the invention of the choliambus.

HIPPOPOTAMUS, a family (Hippopotamidce) of artio- dactylo ungulate mammals comprising two genera, each containing a single living species. Of these the best known is the hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibini), occurring only in Africa, where it abounds in many of the river courses. It is a huge unwieldy creature, measuring in the largest specimens fully 14 feet from the extremity of the upper lip to the tip of the tail, while it ordinarily attains a length of 12 feet, with a height of 5 feet at the shoulders, and a girth round the thickest part of the body almos-t equal to its length. Its remarkably small ears are exceed ingly flexible, and are kept in constant motion when the animal is seeking to catch a distant sound. Its eyes are placed high up on the head, and but little below the level of the ears ; its gape is wide, and its upper lip thick and bulging so as to cover over even the largest of its teeth when the mouth is closed. It is provided with a consider able number of molar teeth adapted for grinding vegetable substances, and a formidable array of long spear-like incisors and curved chisel-edged canines or tusks which, according to Baker, root up the rank grass like an agricul tural implement. , Its legs are short, so that the body is but little elevated above the ground; and its feet, which are small in proportion to the size of the animal, terminate in four short toes each bearing a small hoof. With the excep tion of a few tufts of hair on the lips, on the sides of the head and neck, and at the extremity of the short robust tail, the skin of the hippopotamus, some portions of which are 2 inches in thickness, is entirely destitute of covering. It is usually of a dark fleshy red colour, irregularly marked with blackish spots-. The hippopotamus is a gregarious animal, living in herds of from 20 to 40 individuals on the banks and in the beds of rivers, in the neighbourhood of which it most readily finds its appropriate food. This con sists chiefly of grass and of aquatic plants, of which it con sumes enormous quantities, the stomach of one of those creatures being capable of containing from 5 to 6 bushels. They feed principally by night, remaining in the water during the day, although in districts where they are little disturbed by man they are less exclusively aquatic. In such remote quarters they put their heads boldly out of the water to blow, but when rendered suspicious by man s persecution, they become exceedingly cautious in this respect, only exposing their nostrils above the water, and even this they prefer doing amid the shelter of water plants. In spite of their enormous size and uncouth form, they are expert swimmers and divers, and can, it is said, remain easily under the water from five to eight minutes. They are also said to walk with considerable rapidity on the bottoms of rivers, beneath at least a foot of water. At night fall they come on land to feed; and when, as often happens on the banks of the Nile, they reach cultivated ground, they do immense damage to growing crops, destroying by their ponderous tread even more than they devour. To scare away those unwelcome visitors the natives in such districts are in the habit of kindling great fires at night. Although they do not willingly go far from the water on which their very existence depends, occasionally they have been found to travel long distances by night in search of food, and in spite of their clumsy appearance they are able, according to Baker, to climb up steep banks and precipitous ravines with astonishing power and ease. Of a wounded hippopotamus which that traveller once saw leaving the water and galloping inland, he says, " I never could have imagined that so unwieldy an animal could have exhibited such speed. No man could have had a chance of escape." The hippopotamus does not confine itself to rivers only, but when opportunity occurs of exercising choice it has been known to prefer the waters of the ocean as its home during the day. Of a mild and inoffensive disposition, it seeks to avoid collision with man; when wounded, however, or in defence of its young, it is wont to exhibit the greatest ferocity, and the native canoes are frequently capsized and occasionally demolished by its infuriated attacks, its usual bellowing grunt then becoming loud enough to be heard a mile away. As among elephants, so also among hippopotami there are " rogues " old bulls which, having been expelled from the herd, have become soured in solitude; these are at all times dangerous. Assuming the offensive on every occasion, they attack all and sundry without shadow of provocation ; the natives, therefore, are careful to avoid the haunts of those solitaires, which are usually well known.

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The rifle of the European has proved the most potent destroyer of the hippopotamus; but to prove effective it