UNICORN. " Concerning the Unicorn, different opinions prevail among authors," says the author of Natumlie ' (1633), and he adds that some doubt, others deny, and a third class affirm its existence.
Ctesias, the author probably whom Aristotle followed, describee the Wild Asses of India (Aron firsol) as equal to the horse in size, and even larger, with white bodice, red heeds, bluish eyes, and a horn on the forehead a cubit In length. For the space of two psalms from the fore head this horn la entirely white, the middle part is black, end the extremity is red and pointed. Drinking-vessels are made of it, and those who uie them are subject neither to convulsions, epilepsy, nor poison, provided that before taking the poison, or after, they drink from these cups water, wine, or any other liquor. After some other particulars, Ctesias describes three animals as very swift and very strong. (Meal" ed. It.ilir, pp. 255, 329, 363.) Aristotle notices the Indian Asa as a eolipede which has a horn, and the only one of the solipedes possessing an astragalus. (' Hint Anim.; ii. 1.) He adds, in the third book, on the parte of animals. that those beasts which have only a single horn have it in the middle of their head ; and evidently speaks of the Indian Ass from the accounta of others.
Herodotus (iv. 191) mentions asses (Goes) having horns ; and Strabo (xv., p. 1009, Oxford, folio) refers to Unicorn horses with the heads of deer.
Oppian (' Cyneget.; it, line 96) notices the Aonian bulls with undi vided hoofs and a single median horn between their temples, whereas the Armenian bulls have two.
Ciusar (' Do Bello Galileo,' vi. 26), when referring to the multitude of animals bred in the great Hereynian forest, speaks, probably from hearsay, of an ox with the figure of a deer, from the middle of whose forehead a single horn stands out higher and more direct than any horns known to him. lie adds, that from the top of this horn hmnellus like palms are diffused, that the nature of the male and female is the same, and that the form and size of their horns are similar. Ho then notices the Elk.
Pliny, who, to be sure, places it in the company of the Mantic/fere, the Catoblepas, and the Basilisk, notices it as a very ferocious beset (asperrimam feram), similar in the rest of its body to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep bel lowing voice (mugitu gravi), and a single black horn, two cubits in length, standing out in the middle of its forehead. He adds, " /lane feram vivam negant capi," " that it cannot be taken alive " (' Nat. Hist; viii. 21); and some such excuse nay have been necessary in those days for not producing the living animal upon the arena of the amphitheatre.
Out of this passage moat of the modern Unicorns have been described and figured. But let us pause to scan it. The body of the horse and the bead of the deer appear to be but vague sketches. The feet of the elephant and the tail of a boar point at once to a pachydermatous animal ; and the single black horn, allowing for a little exaggeration as to its length, well fits the two last-mentioned conditions, and will apply to one of the species of Rhinoceros. [Ruisocsnos, in Nes.
Misr. Div.] Our limits will not permit us to follow out In detail the descriptions of the numerous writers who have treated of this subject, among whom are iElian, l'hilostmtue, and Solinus, sEneas Sylvius, Marco Polo, Gesner, Carden, Garziaa ab Norte, Andreas Marinus, Andreas Miceli's, Bartholinus, Aldrovandus, Jouston, &e. Soule, however, of the modern descriptions of the Unicorn may be excepted. Oarcias noted down a description of this marvellous creature from one who alleged that he had seen it. The seer affirmed that it was endowed with a eonderful horn, which it would sometimes turn to the left and right, at others raise, and then again depress. Ludovicus Vartoinanits writes that he saw two sent to the Sultan from Ethiopia, and kept in a repository at 31ahomet's tomb in Mecca, and he describes them as " cancellis °beep tos, minimb ferocea." Carden describes the Unicorn as a rare animal, of the size of a horse, with hair very like unto that of a weasel, with the head of a cheer, on which one horn grows, three cubits in length (a story seldom loses anything in its progress) from the forehead, ample at its lowest part and tapering to a point ; with a short neck, a very thin mane, leaning to one side only, and legs thin as those of a young Roe (capreolue). But, not to weary the reader, if he wishes to see what our ancestors thought Unicorns like, let him turn to Jonston'a Historia Natumlis' (1657). There he will behold the smooth-horned Solipede (" Wald Each "), and the digitated and clawed smooth-horned " Neer olff," the latter with his single horn erect in time foreground, but with it depressed in the background, where ho is represented regaling on serpents. Then there are tine smooth-horned " Monoceros, Unicomu, Einhorn," with the head, mane, and tail of a home, and Waikato feet ; and another smooth-horned " Monoccros, Unioormi, Einhorn," with a horse's head and mane, a pig's tail, and camel-like feet ; the " Meer Steinbock, Capriconms marinue," with anterior bisul eate feet, posterior webbed feet, and a kind of graduated horn like a modern flat telescope opera-glass pulled out, in the foreground, and charging the fish most valiantly in the water in the distance ; then there is the digitated " Wald Esel, Onager Aldrovandi," with a mule's head and two rhinoceros-like horns, one on his forehead and the other on his moat, and a horse's tail, with a collar round his neck ; beneath we find the " Monoceros, sea tadeorne jubatus—Einhorn mit malmen," with a neck entirely shamy, a twisted horn, anterior hisulcate feet, the posterior being webbed, and a deer'e tail ; and at the bottom of the plate, " Monoceros, sett Unicornu nliud—Einhorn mit mahneu, ein antic art" with a twisted horn, mane, and shaggy gorget, curly tail, and camel-like feet.