Of the Hippopotamus
[The Hippopotamus is likend more to] an ox then a horse,and about that size, legged like a bear, (...) squat-bellied, (...) grout-headed, (...) his mouth a foot wide, snout fleshy and turning up, little eyed,(...)the bulk thick, the foot broad, parted into four toes, the ankle hard of flesh, tailed like a tortoise: skin thick, tough, black. (...) [S]nouted as a lion, or cat, with some straggling hairs, nor are any more in the whole body, in the under-chap, (...) like boar tusks, not sticking out , but plainly seen, (...). In the upper chap, which moves like a crocodile, where-with he chews, stand six fore-teeth, aptly answering those beneath (...).The teeth are hard as flint , and will strike (...) [sparks], so that by night rubbing his teeth, he seems to vomit fire.
Joannes Jonstonus, 1678