D'Empoli also mentions them at
Pedir in the beginning of the 16th century; and see Pasei Chronicle
quoted in J. As. ser. IV. tom. ix. pp. 258-259. This speaks of elephants
as used in war by the people of Pasei, and of elephant-hunts as a royal
diversion. The locus of that best of elephant stories, the elephant's
revenge on the tailor, was at Achin.
As Polo's account of the rhinoceros is evidently from nature, it is
notable that he should not only call it unicorn, but speak so precisely
of its one horn, for the characteristic, if not the only, species on the
island, is a two-horned one (Rh. Sumatranus),[4] and his mention of the
buffalo-like hair applies only to this one. This species exists also on
the Indo-Chinese continent and, it is believed, in Borneo. I have seen it
in the Arakan forests as high as 19 deg. 20'; one was taken not long since
near Chittagong; and Mr. Blyth tells me a stray one has been seen in Assam
or its borders.
[Ibn Khordadhbeh says (De Goeje's Transl. p. 47) that rhinoceros is to
be found in Kameroun (Assam), which borders on China. It has a horn, a
cubit long, and two palms thick; when the horn is split, inside is found
on the black ground the white figure of a man, a quadruped, a fish, a
peacock or some other bird.
