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The Unicorn: Indian

Aristotlet mentions two unicorn animals. "There are only a few [animals] that have a solid hoof and one horn, as the Indian ass and the oryx." * Book iv. ch. cxci. and cxcii. † Book ii. ch. ii. § 8.

Pliny* tells us that the Orsæan Indians hunt down a very fierce animal called the monoceros, which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse. It makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, projecting from the middle of its forehead, and two cubits in length. This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive. In speaking of the Indian ass, he says, "the Indian ass is only a onehorned animal"; and of the oryx of Africa, "the oryx is both one-horned and cloven-footed."

Ælians transfers the locality back again from Africa to Asia, and it may be presumed, in the following quotation, that he indicates the country north of the Himalaya, Thibet, and Tartary, which still has the reputation of being one of the homes of the unicorn. "They say that there are mountains in the innermost regions of India inaccessible to men, and full of wild beasts; where those creatures which with us are domesticated, such as sheep, dogs, goats, and cattle, range about at their own free will, free from any charge by a shepherd or herdsman. "Both historians, and the more learned of the Indians, among whom the Brahmins may be specified, declare that there is a countless number of these beasts. Among them they enumerate the unicorn, which they call cartazonon, and say that it reaches the size of a horse of mature age, possesses a mane and reddish yellow hair, and that it excels in swiftness through the excellence of its feet and of its whole body. Like the elephant, it has inarticulate feet, and it has a boar's tail; one black horn projects between the eyebrows, * Book viii. ch. xxxii. † Book xi. ch. cvi. ‡ Ibid. § Allian, De Naturâ Animalium, Book xvi. ch, xx, not awkwardly, but with a certain natural twist, and terminating in a sharp point. "It has, of all animals, the harshest and most contentious voice. It is said to be gentle to other beasts approaching it, but to fight with its fellows. Not only are the males at variance in natural contention amongst themselves, but they also fight with the females, and carry their combats to the length of killing the conquered; for not only are their bodies generally indued with great strength, but also they are armed with an invincible horn. It frequents desert regions and wanders alone and solitary. In the breeding season it is of gentle demeanour towards the female, and they feed together; when this has passed and the female has become gravid, it again becomes fierce and wanders alone. "They say that the young, while still of tender age, are carried to the King of the Prasians for exhibition of their strength, and exposed in combats on festivals; for no one remembers them to have been captured of mature age." Cæsar* records the reputed existence in his day, within the bounds of the great Hercynian Forest, of a bull, shaped like a stag, with one horn projecting from the middle of its forehead and between the ears.

Cosmas, surnamed Indicopleustes, a merchant of Alexandria, who lived in the sixth century, and made a voyage to India, and subsequently wrote works on cosmography, gives a figure of the unicorn, not, as he says, from actual sight of it, but reproduced from four figures of it in brass contained in the palace of the King of Ethiopia. He states, from report, that "it is impossible to take this ferocious beast alive; and that all its strength lies in its horn. When it finds itself pursued and in danger of capture, it throws * De Bello Gallico, ch. ii. p. 26. † Vide Charton's Voyageurs du Moyen Ages, vol. ii. p. 25. itself from a precipice, and turns so aptly in falling, that it receives all the shock upon the horn, and so escapes safe and sound." It is noteworthy that this mode of escape is attributed, at the present day, to both the musk ox and the Ovis Ammon.

Marco Polo may or may not indicate a rhinoceros in the passage, "Après avoir descendu ces deux journées et demie, on trouve une province au midi qui est sur les confins de l'Inde, on l'appelle Amien-on marche quinze journées par des lieux desertes et par de grands bois où il y a beaucoup d'éléphants et de licornes et d'autres bêtes sauvages. Il n'y a ni hommes ni habitations aussi, nous laisserons ce lieu." But no such inference can be attached to the descriptions of the Ethiopian unicorn by Leo and Ludolphus.

The first says:* "The unicorn is found in the mountains of high Ethiopia. It is of an ash colour and resembles a colt of two years old, excepting that it has the head of a goat, and in the middle of its (forehead a horn three feet long, which is smooth and white like ivory, and has yellow streaks running along from top to bottom. "This horn is an antidote against poison, and it is reported that other animals delay drinking till it has soaked its horn in the water to purify it. This animal is so nimble that it can neither be killed nor taken. But it casts its horn like a stag, and the hunters find it in the deserts. But the truth of this is called in question by some authors." Ludolphust says: "Here is also another beast, called arucharis, with one horn, fierce and strong, of which unicorn several have been seen feeding in the woods." * Harris' Voyages, vol. i. p. 362; "Africa," by John Leo. † Pinkerton's Voyages, vol. i. p. 392; "Ethiopia," by Jobus Ludolphus. Coming down to later days we find the unicorn described by Lewes Vertomannus*-he who, having visited, among other places, the site of the legend of St. George and the Dragon,† and undergone a variety of adventures, visits, in the course of them, the temple of Mecca, and, as follows, gives a description " of the unicorns of the Temple of Mecha, which are not seen in any other place." "On the other part of the temple are parks or places enclosed, where are seen two unicorns, named of the Greeks monocerotæ, and are there showed to the people for a miracle, and not without good reason, for the seldomness and strange nature. The one of them, which is much higher than the other, yet not much unlike to a colt of thirty months of age; in the forehead groweth only one horn, in manner right foorth, of the length of three cubits. The other is much younger, of the age of one year, and like a young colt; the horn of this is of the length of four handfulls. "This beast is of the colour of a horse of weesell colour, and hath the head like a hart, but no long neck, a thynne mane hanging only on the one side. Their leggs are thin and slender like a fawn or hind. The hoofs of the fore-feet are divided in two, much like the feet of a goat. The outer part of the hinder feet is very full of hair. "This beast doubtless seemeth wild and fierce, yet tempereth that fierceness with a certain comeliness. "These unicorns one gave to the Sultan of Mecha as a most precious and rare gift. They were sent him out of Ethiope by a king of that country who desired by that present to gratify the Sultan of Mecha."

Visiting the interior of Arabia from Aden, and afterwards * The Navigation and Voyage of Lewes Vertomannus, of Rome, into Arabia, Egypt, &c., in 1503, contained in "The History of Travayle in the East and West Indies," done into English by Richard Eden. London, † Berynto, a city on the seacoast of Syria, Phoenicia. starting for Persia, Vertomannus was driven back by a contrary wind to Zeila (in Africa), which he describes as being an important city with much merchandise-when again he says, "I saw there also certain kyne, having only one horn in the middle of the forehead, as hath the unicorn, and about a span in length, but the horn bendeth backwards. They are of bright shining red colour."