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.
