Animals: Rhinoceros

Lumpy-hided, gargoyle-headed, hideously monstrous, the single-horned Indian rhinoceros is fine to look at in a zoo but no creature to have around a palace. King George V lately got one as a present from the Maharajah of Nepal, promptly turned it over to the London Zoo. That reminded the Manchester Guardian of the way another king had solved the problem of a gift rhinoceros. In the 16th Century, Portuguese explorers captured one in India, brought it back to their monarch. His delight at owning the first rhinoceros ever seen in Europe soon turned to dismay, for the animal was a grunting, intractable terror. From motives now hidden by the centuries, the King of Portugal hit on a solution—he would send the rhino to the Pope. Happily he clapped the brute on a vessel bound for Rome. But en route the rhino, disdainful of King & Pope, provided its own denouement. Running amok, it battered through the hull, sank the ship.