Strange Beasts

Unicorns

Ponce de Leon leads you into a forest on your quest for the Fountain of Youth. The forest is dark, deep and mysterious. You hear a noise coming from the north; Ponce decides to follow the trail and head toward the noise. You follow him closely and emerge into a clearing. A short balding man stands before you and Ponce greets him fondly.

“My friend! How good it is to see you!” said Ponce.

“You as well, my good man! What brings you to this side of the forest?” replies the stranger.

“We seek the Fountain of Youth, but heard a noise to the north which we agreed to follow,” said Ponce.

“My friends, you are hearing the herd of unicorns that inhabit these parts! Let me tell you all about what magnificent creatures they are…” said the man.

“There are animals which claim to have a real existence, but whose existence is nevertheless very dubious, and their identity with any known animal very difficult to establish. Foremost among these must be reckoned the unicorn — the creature which, since the days of James the First, has held so distinguished a place as one of the supporters of the Royal Arms of England. The unicorn is several times mentioned in Holy Scripture. ‘My horn shall be exalted like the horn of an unicorn,’ writes David in the Book of Psalms. ‘He hath as it were the strength of an unicorn,’ is Balaam’s simile in the Book of Numbers. ‘Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee?’ is the question asked by the Lord of Job, when he would remind him of his impotence. In these and other passages most commentators have identified it with the rhinoceros or the reem, some few with the wild goat. Another notion has been put forward, much more recently, which supposes the gemsbok of Southern Africa to be the animal meant; because though the gemsbok has two straight horns, they are set so close together, that from a short distance they seem to be only one. It should indeed be noted that, though the creature is called an unicorn, in more than one passage two horns are ascribed to it: as e.g., Deut. xxxiii. 17, ‘His horns are like the horns of an unicorn,’ and Psalm xxii. 21, ‘Thou hast heard me between the horns of the unicorn,’ where our translators have rendered’ the horns of the unicorns,’ altering the original in order to avoid the apparent contradiction. But allowing all weight to this and other arguments which have been urged, the description given of the unicorn by travellers and naturalists does not accord at all accurately with any of the four animals above named. It will be best to particularize what has been said respecting it. Herodotus appears to be the first who has mentioned it— that is supposing that the ‘horned ass’ of Africa (which he distinguished from the ‘wild asses’ of that country), is the same as the unicorn. But that is, at best, a doubtful point. Ctesias, however, a century or so after him, speaks more definitely. He calls the creature ‘the wild ass of India,’ and describes it as being equal in size to a horse, in some instances larger, with a white body, a red head, bluish eyes, and a straight horn on the forehead, a cubit long. The lower part of this horn he represents as being white, the middle black, and the tip red. Drinking-cups were made of it; and these, like the Venetian glass, were believed to possess the power of neutralising poison when poured into them. Nay it was affirmed that if a draught of water or wine was taken in them after imbibing poison, it would counteract the mischief. Ctesias represents the unicorn as extraordinarily swift of foot, untameable, and almost impossible of capture,” said the man.

“Other naturalists, Aristotle, Strabo, &c, give accounts very nearly corresponding with the above. Crcsar describes an animal — a quadruped, inhabiting the great Hercynian forests, which, he says, is of the bulk of an ox, and the figure of a deer, and from the middle of whose forehead a single horn stands out, higher and straighter than any horn known to him. He adds that from the top of this horn, branches like those of a palm spread out (“De Bell. Gall.” vi. 20). Pliny represents the unicorn as a ferocious beast with the body of a horse, the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a wild boar, and a single black horn two cubits long, standing out of its forehead. This creature was never produced in the Roman amphitheatres, notwithstanding the rage for the exhibition of strange animals which prevailed at Rome for several centuries, and which one emperor after another exerted himself to the utmost to gratify. Its non-appearance has been attributed by some to the fact before alleged, that it was found impossible to capture it; but by others to the simpler reason that such an animal never existed (N. H. viii. 31). Such is the ancient testimony on this subject. The modern is not less remarkable.

Cardan describes it as a rare animal, the size of a horse, with hair like that of a weasel and the head of a deer, on which there grows one horn, three cubits in length, large at the lower part and tapering towards the end. A strange fable was told in the middle ages respecting this creature, that, although it was impossible to hunt it down, it was so impressed by the presence of a pure and lovely virgin, that it would run up to her and submissively lay its head in her lap. This legend is preserved by Marco Polo; but his editor Colonel Yule, affirms that the unicorn was supposed to be attracted, not by the lady’s beauty or chastity, but by the perfumes with which her dress was scented— a terrible come down, so far as the romance of the story is concerned. Evelyn says that the Monoceros is as big as a full-sized horse, with a mane and yellow woolly hair, of great swiftness, with feet like an elephant, and a tail like a wild boar. It has a black horn growing between its eyebrows. This is not smooth, but with natural twistings and is very sharp at the point. It utters loud harsh sounds. It lives peaceably with other animals, but quarrels with those of its own kind — the males even destroying the females; except at breeding times, when the animals are gregarious. At other times they live in solitude and wild regions. It may be said of many of these writers that they simply repeat each other’s assertions, without enquiry of their own. But this is not, at all events always, the case. Peter Martyr gives an account of an animal drawn from his own observation in Africa, which bears a remarkable resemblance to the supposed monoceros or unicorn. ‘The lands and desolate pastures of these regions,’ he says, ‘are inhabited and devoured of wild and terrible beasts, as lions, tigers, and such like other monsters, as we now know, and have been described of old authors in times past. But there is specially one beast engendered here, in which nature has endeavoured to show her cunning. This beast is as big as an ox, armed with a long snout like an elephant, and yet no elephant; of the colour of an ox, and yet no ox; with the hoof of an horse, and yet no horse; with ears also like those of an elephant, but not so open, and not so much hanging down, yet much wider than the ears of any ether beast,” finished the man.

“Good information, my friend! And thank you for it. Onwards we go!” exclaimed Ponce. You follow Ponce forward into the forest and find yourself in front of 12 unicorns.

“In order to defeat them, you must answer the follow question correctly,” Ponce tells you.

QUESTION: How does Ctesias describe the unicorn?