"'Tis then the huntsmen hasten up, abandoning their ambush;
Clean from his head they chop his horn, prized antidote to poison;
And let the docked and luckless beast escape into the jungles."
- V. 399, seqq.
In the cut which we give of this from a mediaeval source the horn of the
unicorn is evidently the tusk of a narwhal. This confusion arose very
early, as may be seen from its occurrence in Aelian, who says that the
horn of the unicorn or Kartazonon (the Arab Karkaddan or Rhinoceros)
was not straight but twisted ([Greek: eligmous echon tinas], Hist. An.
xvi. 20). The mistake may also be traced in the illustrations to Cosmas
Indicopleustes from his own drawings, and it long endured, as may be seen
in Jerome Cardan's description of a unicorn's horn which he saw suspended
in the church of St. Denis; as well as in a circumstance related by P.
della Valle (II. 491; and Cardan, de Varietate, c. xcvii.). Indeed the
supporter of the Royal arms retains the narwhal horn. To this popular
error is no doubt due the reading in Pauthier's text, which makes the horn
white instead of black.
[Illustration: Monoceros and the Maiden.[7]]
We may quote the following quaint version of the fable from the Bestiary
of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright (Popular Treatises on
Science, etc. p. 81):
"Monosceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste,
Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad facun;
Par Pucele est prise; or vez en quel guise.
Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner,
Si vent hom al forest u sis riparis est;
La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele,
Et par odurement Monosceros la sent;
Dunc vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele,
En sein devant se dort, issi vent a sa mort
Li hom suivent atant ki l'ocit en dormant
U trestout vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent.
Grant chose signifie."....
And so goes on to moralise the fable.
NOTE 6. - In the J. Indian Archip. V. 285, there is mention of the Falco
Malaiensis, black, with a double white-and-brown spotted tail, said to
belong to the ospreys, "but does not disdain to take birds and other
game."
[1] See Anderson's Missing to East Coast of Sumatra. pp. 229, 233 and
map. The Ferlec of Polo was identified by Valentyn. (Sumatra, in
vol. v. p. 21.) Marsden remarks that a terminal k is in Sumatra
always softened or omitted in pronunciation. (H. of Sum. 1st. ed. p.
163.) Thus we have Perlak, and Perla, as we have Battak and Batta.
[2] Since this engraving was made a fourth species has been established,
Rhin lasyotis, found near Chittagong.
[3] The elephant of India has 6 true ribs and 13 false ribs, that of
Sumatra and Ceylon has 6 true and 14 false.
