The same objects which would be full of interest to a
tutored eye, and would be scanned in all their parts with
eager and systematic curiosity, might pass almost unobserved
before the vague and indiiferent glance of an uncultivated
individual like Adams ; and his recollection of them,
if he recollected them at all, would only extend to a rude
and indistinct idea of their general appearance. The
details in the text leave no room to doubt that it was an
elephant which Adams saw; and with respect to the teeth
it must not be forgotten, that he was questioned about
them, apparently fo r the first time, more than four years
after he saw the animal. If his observation of it might be
expected to be vague and indistinct even at first, it would
not be very extraordinary that his recollection of it, after
so long an interval, should be far from accurate; and we
cannot feel much surprise that, though he remembered that
the animal had teeth, he should not be very well able to
recollect whether it had two or four.
Note 19, p. 30.
Alligators I have been informed are met with in the
river near Timbuctoo; but I never heard the hippopotamus
mentioned. I).
Note 20, p. 30.
I never before heard of this extraordinary animal, either
from Adams or any one else. D.
It would be unfair to Adams not to explain that when
questioned as to his personal knowledge of the “ courcoo/'’
it appeared that he had never seen the animal nearer than
at thirty or forty yards distance. It was from the Negroes
he learnt that it had on its back “ a hollow place like a
“ pouch, which they called 4 coo,’ ” in which it pocketed
its prey; and having once seen the creature carrying a
branch of cocoa-nut with its fruit, “ which as the courcoo
“ ran swiftly away, seemed to lie on its back,” Adams
concluded of course that the pocket must be there; and
further, that the animal fed on cocoa-nuts, as well as goats
and children.
In many respects Adams’s description of the animal,
(about which the Narrative shews that he was closely
questioned), answers to the lynx.
Note 21, p. SO.
Lions, tigers, wolves, hycenas, foxes, and wild-cats, have
been described to me as natives of most parts of Soudan ;
mid are hunted by the Negroes on account of the ravages