Hippophagi

[Gr. hippos, and phage in, to eat.] (Anc. Geog.) A people of Scythia that fed on horse-flesh. The descendants of these - the Kalmuck Tartars of the present day - still retain the peculiarities of the Scythians, and esteem horse-flesh as a dainty. Hippophagous, ( hip - pof'a - gus ,) a. [Gr. hippos , and phage in, to eat.] Feeding on horse-flesh, as certain Tartar tribes, . Hippophagy, ( hip - pof'a - je ,) n. Art or practice of eating horse-flesh. Many attempts have been made in Europe to introduce the flesh of the horse as an article of food, hippophagic societies being formed in Paris and Berlin about 1845; horse butcheries established in Germany in 1855, and in Paris in 1865. But these efforts were largely failures, and the people of Paris first became accustomed to H. during the privations of the siege of 1870-71. The meat, though dark in color, is found to be pleasant in taste and nutritious, and its use is rapidly increasing. H. has not extended to the U. S. Hippopotamus, n. [From Gr. hippos , the horse, potamios , of the river.] ( Zool . ) The River-horse, a pachydermatous animal, which inhabits most of the rivers of Africa. Its generic characters are: four toes on all the Fig . 1295. - HIPPOPOTAMUS. to place the matter beyond doubt. That it was known to the anciente is conclusive from the fact that Hero dot us, Aristotle, Pliny, and Diodorus, each and all give descriptions of the animal.