“As the Babouns and Cynocephali are more wilde than other Apes, so the Satyres and Sphynges are more meeke and gentle, for they are not so wilde that they will not bee tamed, nor yet so tame, but they will revenge their own harmes; as appeared by that which was slayne in a publike spectacle among the Thebanes. They carrye their meat in the store houses of their own chaps or cheeks, taking it forth when they are hungry, and so eat it.
“The name of this Sphynx is taken from ‘binding,’ as appeareth by the Greek notation, or else of delicacie and dainty nice loosnesse, (wherefore there were certain common strumpets called Sphinctæ, and the Megarian Sphingas was a very popular phrase for notorious harlots), hath given occasion to the poets to faigne a certaine monster called Sphynx, which they say was thus derived. Hydra brought foorth the Chimæra, Chimæra by Orthus, the Sphynx, and the Nemæan Lyon: now, this Orthus was one of Geryon’s dogges. This Sphynx they make a treble formed monster, a Mayden’s face, a Lyon’s legs, and the wings of a fowle; or, as Ansonius and Varinus say, the face and head of a mayde, the body of a dogge, the winges of a byrd, the voice of a man, the clawes of a Lyon, and the tayle of a dragon: and that she kept continually in the Sphincian mountaine; propounding to all travailers that came that way an Ænigma, or Riddle, which was this: What was the creature that first of all goeth on foure legges; afterwards on two, and, lastly, on three: and all of them that could not dissolve that Riddle, she presently slew, by taking them, and throwing them downe headlong, from the top of a Rocke. At last Œdipus came that way, and declared the secret, that it was a man, who in his infancy creepeth on all foure, afterward, in youth, goeth upon two legs, and last of all, in olde age taketh unto him a staffe which maketh him to goe, as it were, on three legs; which the monster hearing, she presently threwe down herselfe from the former rocke, and so she ended. Whereupon Œdipus is taken for a subtill and wise opener of mysteries.
“But the truth is, that when Cadmus had married an Amazonian woman, called Sphynx, and, with her, came to Thebes, and there slew Draco their king, and possessed his kingdom, afterwards there was a sister unto Draco called Harmona, whom Cadmus married, Sphynx being yet alive. She, in revenge, (being assisted by many followers,) departed with great store of wealth into the mountaine Sphincius, taking with her a great Dogge, which Cadmus held in great account, and there made daily incursions or spoiles upon his people. Now, ænigma, in the Theban language, signifieth an inrode, or warlike incursion, wherfore the people complained in this sort. This Grecian Sphinx robbeth us, in setting up with an ænigma, but no man knoweth after what manner she maketh this ænigma.
“Cadmus hereupon made proclamation, that he would give a very bountifull reward unto him that would kill Sphinx, upon which occasion the Corinthian Œdipus came unto her, being mounted on a swift courser, and accompanied with some Thebans in the night season, slue her. Other say that Œdipus by counterfaiting friendshippe, slue her, making shew to be of her faction; and Pausanius saith, that the former Riddle, was not a Riddle, but an Oracle of Apollo, which Cadmus had received, whereby his posterity should be inheritors of the Theban kingdome; and whereas Œdipus, being the son of Laius, a former king of that countrey, was taught the Oracle in his sleepe, he recouvered the kingdome usurped by Sphinx his sister, and, afterwards, unknown, married his mother Jocasta.
“But the true morall of this poetical fiction is by that learned Alciatus, in one of his emblems, deciphered; that her monstrous treble formed shape signified her lustfull pleasure under a Virgin’s face, her cruell pride, under the Lyon’s clawes, her winde-driven leuitye, under the Eagles, or birdes feathers, and I will conclude with the wordes of Suidas concerning such monsters, that the Tritons, Sphinges, and Centaures, are the images of those things, which are not to be founde within the compasse of the whole world.”
Apes.
Sluper, who could soar to the height of delineating a Cyclops, is equal to the occasion when he has to deal with Apes, and here he gives us an Ape which, unfortunately, does not seem to have survived to modern times—namely, one which wove for itself coarse cloth, probably of rushes; had a cloak of skin, and walked upright, with the aid of a walking-stick, and was so genteel, that, having no boots, he seems to have blacked his feet. And thus he sings of it:
Before quitting the subject of Apes, I cannot refrain from noticing another of this genus mentioned by Topsell, and that is the Arctopithecus or Bear Ape:—“There is in America a very deformed beast, which the inhabitants call Haut or Hauti, and the Frenchmen Guenon, as big as a great Affrican Monkey. His belly hangeth very low, his head and face like unto a childes, and being taken, it will sigh like a young childe. His skin is of an ashe-colour, and hairie like a Beare: he hath but three clawes on a foote, as longe as foure fingers, and like the thornes of Privet, whereby he climbeth up into the highest trees, and for the most part liveth of the leaves of a certain tree, beeing of an exceeding heighth, which the Americans call Amahut, and thereof this beast is called Haut. Their tayle is about three fingers long, having very little haire thereon; it hath beene often tried, that though it suffer any famine, it will not eate the fleshe of a living man, and one of them was given me by a French-man, which I kept alive sixe and twenty daies, and at the last it was killed by Dogges, and in that time when I had set it abroad in the open ayre, I observed that, although it often rained, yet was that beast never wet.28 When it is tame, it is very loving to a man, and desirous to climbe uppe to his shoulders, which those naked Amerycans cannot endure, by reason of the sharpnesse of his Clawes.”
Animal Lore.
We are indebted to Pliny for much strange animal lore—which, however, will scarcely bear the fierce light of modern investigation. Thus, he tells us of places in which certain animals are not to be found, and narrates some very curious zoological anecdotes thereon. “It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned different countries to different animals, but that even in the same country it has denied certain species to certain localities. In Italy, the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian forest. In Lycia, the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria; nor does the wild ass in that vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia. On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a strange territory, and, about Arginussa, they never go beyond Mount Elaphus; those upon the mountains, too, have cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene, the weasels will not so much as cross a certain road. In Bœotia, the moles, which were introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country, while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for beds made of the skin of these creatures, so that our sense of religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous animals for the purposes of luxury.
“When hares have been brought to Ithaca, they die as soon as ever they touch the shore, and the same is the case with rabbits, on the shores of the island of Ebusus; while they abound in the vicinity, Spain namely, and the Balearic isles. In Cyrene, the frogs were formerly dumb, and this species still exists, although croaking ones were carried over there from the Continent. At the present day, even, the frogs of the island of Seriphos are dumb; but when they are carried to other places, they croak; the same thing is also said to have taken place at Sicandrus, a lake of Thessaly. In Italy, the bite of a shrew-mouse is venomous; an animal which is not to be found in any region beyond the Apennines. In whatever country it exists, it always dies immediately if it goes across the rut made by a wheel. Upon Olympus, a mountain of Macedonia, there are no wolves, nor yet in the isle of Crete. In this island there are neither foxes nor bears, nor, indeed, any kind of baneful animal, with the exception of the phalangium, a species of spider. It is a thing still more remarkable, that in this island there are no stags, except in the district of Cydon; the same is the case with the wild boar, the woodcock, and the hedgehog.”
He further tells us of animals which will injure strangers only, as also animals which injure the natives only.
“There are certain animals which are harmless to the natives of the country, but destroy strangers; such as the little serpents at Tirynthus, which are said to spring out of the earth. In Syria, also, and especially on the banks of the Euphrates, the serpents never attack the Syrians when they are asleep, and even if they happen to bite a native who treads upon them, their venom is not felt; but to persons of any other country they are extremely hostile, and fiercely attack them, causing a death attended with great torture. On this account the Syrians never kill them. On the contrary, on Latmos, a mountain of Caria, as Aristotle tells us, strangers are not injured by the scorpions, while the natives are killed by them.”
He also throws some curious light, unknown to modern zoologists, on the antipathies of animals one to another. He says:—“There will be no difficulty in perceiving that animals are possessed of other instincts besides those previously mentioned. In fact, there are certain antipathies, and sympathies among them, which give rise to various affections, besides those which we have mentioned in relation to each species, in its appropriate place. The Swan and the Eagle are always at variance, and the Raven and the Chloreus seek each other’s eggs by night. In a similar manner, also, the Raven and the Kite are perpetually at war with one another, the one carrying off the other’s food. So, too, there are antipathies between the Crow and the Owl, the Eagle and the Trochilus; between the last two, if we are to believe the story, because the latter has received the title of ‘the king of birds;’ the same, again, with the Owlet and all the smaller birds.
“Again, in relation to the terrestrial animals, the Weasel is at enmity with the Crow, the Turtle-dove with the Pyrallis, the Ichneumon with the Wasp, and the Phalangium with other Spiders. Among aquatic animals, there is enmity between the Duck and the Seamew, the Falcon known as the ‘Harpe,’ and the Hawk called the ‘Triorchis.’ In a similar manner, too, the Shrew-mouse and the Heron are ever on the watch for each other’s young; and the Ægithus, so small a bird as it is, has an antipathy for the Ass; for the latter, when scratching itself, rubs its body against the brambles, and so crushes the bird’s nest; a thing of which it stands in such dread, that, if it only hears the voice of the Ass when it brays, it will throw its eggs out of the nest, and the young ones, themselves, will, sometimes, fall to the ground in their fright; hence it is that it will fly at the Ass, and peck at its sores with its beak.
“The Fox, too, is at war with the Nisus, and Serpents with Weasels and Swine. Æsalon is the name given to a small bird that breaks the eggs of the Raven, and the young of which are anxiously sought by the Fox; while, in its turn, it will peck at the young of the Fox, and even the parent itself. As soon as the Ravens espy this, they come to its assistance, as though against a common enemy. The Acanthis, too, lives among the brambles; hence it is that it also has an antipathy to the Ass, because it devours the bramble blossoms. The Ægithus and the Anthus, too, are at such mortal enmity with each other, that it is the common belief that their blood will not mingle; and it is for this reason that they have the bad repute of being employed in many magical incantations. The Thos and the Lion are at war with each other; and, indeed, the smallest objects and the greatest, just as much. Caterpillars will avoid a tree that is infested with Ants. The Spider, poised in its web, will throw itself on the head of a Serpent, as it lies stretched beneath the shade of the tree where it has built, and, with its bite, pierce its brain; such is the shock, that the creature will hiss from time to time, and then, seized with vertigo, coil round and round, while it finds itself unable to take to flight, or so much as to break the web of the spider, as it hangs suspended above; this scene only ends with its death.”
The Manticora.
Of curious animals, other than Apes, depicted as having some approach to the human countenance, perhaps the most curious is the Manticora. It is not a parvenu; it is of ancient date, for Aristotle mentions it. Speaking of the dentition of animals, he says:—“None of these genera have a double row of teeth. But, if we may believe Ctesias, there are some which have this peculiarity, for he mentions an Indian animal called Martichora, which had three rows of teeth in each jaw; it is as large and rough as a lion, and has similar feet, but its ears and face are like those of a man; its eye is grey, and its body red; it has a tail like a land Scorpion, in which there is a sting; it darts forth the spines with which it is covered, instead of hair, and it utters a noise resembling the united sound of a pipe and a trumpet; it is not less swift of foot than a stag, and is wild, and devours men.”
Pliny also quotes Ctesias, but he slightly diverges, for he says it has azure eyes, and is of the colour of blood; he also affirms it can imitate the human speech. Par parenthèse he mentions, in conjunction with the Manticora, another animal similarly gifted:—“By the union of the hyæna with the Æthiopian lioness, the Corocotta is produced, which has the same faculty of imitating the voices of men and cattle. Its gaze is always fixed and immoveable; it has no gums in either of its jaws, and the teeth are one continuous piece of bone; they are enclosed in a sort of box, as it were, that they may not be blunted by rubbing against each other.”
Mais, revenons à nos moutons, or rather Mantichora. Topsell, in making mention of this beast, recapitulates all that Ctesias has said on the subject, and adds:—“And I take it to be the same Beast which Avicen calleth Marion, and Maricomorion, with her taile she woundeth her Hunters, whether they come before her or behinde her, and, presently, when the quils are cast forth, new ones grow up in their roome, wherewithal she overcometh all the hunters; and, although India be full of divers ravening beastes, yet none of them are stiled with a title of Andropophagi, that is to say, Men-eaters; except onely this Mantichora. When the Indians take a Whelp of this beast, they fall to and bruise the buttockes and taile thereof, so that it may never be fit to bring (forth) sharp quils, afterwards it is tamed without peril. This, also, is the same beast which is called Leucrocuta, about the bignesse of a wilde Asse, being in legs and hoofes like a Hart, having his mouth reaching on both sides to his eares, and the head and face of a female like unto a Badgers. It is also called Martiora, which in the Parsian tongue, signifieth a devourer of men.”
Du Bartas, in “His First Week, or the Birth of the World,” mentions our friend as being created:—
It is mentioned by other writers—but I have a theory of my own about it, and that is, that it is only an idealised laughing hyæna.
The Lamia.
The Lamiæ are mythological—and were monsters of Africa, with the face and breast of a woman, the rest of the body like that of a serpent; they allured strangers, that they might devour them; and though not endowed with the faculty of speech, their hissings were pleasing. Some believed them to be evil spirits, who, in the form of beautiful women, enticed young children, and devoured them; according to some, the fable of the Lamiæ is derived from the amours of Jupiter with a beautiful woman, Lamia, whom Juno rendered deformed, and whose children she destroyed; Lamia became insane, and so desperate, that she ate up all the children which came in her way.
Topsell, before entering upon the natural history of the Lamia, as an animal, tells the following story of it as a mythological being:—“It is reported of Menippus the Lycian, that he fell in love with a strange woman, who at that time seemed both beautifull, tender, and rich, but, in truth, there was no such thing, and all was but a fantastical ostentation; she was said to insinuate her selfe, into his familiaritie after this manner: as he went upon a day alone from Corinth to Senchræa, hee met with a certaine phantasme, or spectre like a beautifull woman, who tooke him by the hand, and told him she was a Phœnician woman, and of long time had loved him dearely, having sought many occasions to manifest the same, but could never finde opportunitie untill that day, wherefore she entreated him to take knowledge of her house, which was in the Suburbes of Corinth, therewithall pointing unto it with her finger, and so desired his presence. The young man seeing himselfe thus wooed by a beautiful woman, was easily overcome by her allurements, and did oftimes frequent her company.
“There was a certaine wise man, and a Philosopher, which espied the same, and spake unto Menippus in this manner, ‘O formose, et a formorsis, expetitie mulieribus, ophin thalpies, cai se ophis,’ that is to say, ‘O fair Menippus, beloved of beautiful women, art thou a serpent, and dost nourish a serpent?’ by which words he gave him his first admonition, or incling of a mischiefe; but not prevayling, Menippus proposed to marry with this spectre, her house to the outward shew, being richly furnished with all manner of houshold goods; then said the wise man againe unto Menippus, ‘This gold, silver, and ornaments of house, are like to Tantalus Apples, who are said by Homer to make a faire shew, but to containe in them no substance at all; even so, whatsoever you conceave of this riches, there is no matter or substance in the things which you see, for they are onely inchaunted images, and shadowes, which that you may beleeve, this your neate bride is one of the Empusæ, called Lamia, or Mormolicæ, wonderfull desirous of commerce with men, and loving their flesh above measure; but those whom they doe entice, afterwards they devoure without love or pittie, feeding upon their flesh.’ At which words the wise man caused the gold and silver plate, and household stuffe, cookes, and servants to vanish all away. Then did the spectre like unto one that wept, entreate the wise man that he would not torment her, nor yet cause her to confesse what manner of person she was; but he on the other side being inexorable, compelled her to declare the whole truth, which was, that she was a Phairy, and that she purposed to use the companie of Menippus, and feede him fat with all manner of pleasures, to the extent that, afterward, she might eate up and devour his body, for all their kinde love was only to feed upon beautiful yong men....
“To leave therefore these fables, and come to the true description of the Lamia, we have in hand. In the foure and thirty chapter of Esay, we do find this called a beast Lilith in the Hæbrew, and translated by the auncients Lamia, which is threatened to possesse Babell. Likewise in the fourth chapter of the Lamentations, where it is said in our English translation, that the Dragons lay forth their brests, in Hæbrew they are called Ehannum, which, by the confession of the best interpreters, cannot signifie Dragons, but rather Sea calves, being a generall word for strange wilde beasts. How be it the matter being wel examined, it shall appeare that it must needes be this Lamia, because of her great breastes, which are not competible either to the Dragon, or Sea calves; so then, we wil take it for graunted, by the testimony of holy Scripture, that there is such a beast as this Cristostinius. Dion also writeth that there are such beasts in some parts of Libia, having a Woman’s face, and very beautifull, also very large and comely shapes on their breasts, such as cannot be counterfeited by the art of any painter, having a very excellent colour in their fore parts, without wings, and no other voice but hissing like Dragons: they are the swiftest of foote of all earthly beasts, so as none can escape them by running, for, by their celerity, they compasse their prey of beastes, and by their fraud they overthrow men. For when they see a man, they lay open their breastes, and by the beauty thereof, entice them to come neare to conference, and so, having them within their compasse, they devoure and kill them.
“Unto the same things subscribe Cælius and Giraldus, adding also, that there is a certaine crooked place in Libia neare the Sea-shore, full of sand like to a sandy Sea, and all the neighbor places thereunto are deserts. If it fortune at any time, that through shipwrack, men come there on shore, these beasts watch uppon them, devouring them all, which either endevour to travell on the land, or else to returne backe againe to Sea, adding also, that when they see a man they stand stone still, and stir not til he come unto them, looking down upon their breasts or to the ground, whereupon some have thought, that seeing them, at their first sight have such a desire to come neare them, that they are drawne into their compasse, by a certaine naturall magicall witchcraft.... The hinderparts of the beast are like unto a Goate, his fore legs like a Beares, his upper parts to a woman, the body scaled all over like a Dragon, as some have affirmed by the observation of their bodies, when Probus, the Emperor, brought them forth unto publike spectacle; also it is reported of them, that they devoure their own young ones, and therefore they derive their name Lamia, of Lamiando; and thus much for this beast.”
The Centaur.
This extraordinary combination of man and animal is very ancient—and the first I can find is Assyrian. Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, in one of his British Museum Lectures (afterwards published under the title of From under the Dust of Ages), speaking of the seasons and the zodiacal signs, in his lecture on The Legend of Gizdhubar, says:—“Gizdhubar has a dream that the stars of heaven are falling upon him, and, like Nebuchadnezzar, he can find no one to explain the hidden meaning to him. He is, however, told by his huntsman, Zaidu, of a very wise creature who dwells in the marshes, three days’ journey from Erech.... The strange being, whom this companion of the hero is despatched to bring to the Court, is one of the most interesting in the Epic. He is called Hea-bani—‘he whom Hea has made.’ This mysterious creature is represented on the gems, as half a man, and half a bull. He has the body, face, and arms of a man, and the horns, legs, hoofs, and tail of a bull. Though in form rather resembling the satyrs, and in fondness for, and in association with the cattle, the rustic deity Pan, yet in his companionship with Gizdhubar, and his strange death, he approaches nearer the Centaur Chiron, who was the companion of Heracles.
“By his name he was the son of Hea, whom Berosus identifies as Cronos, as Chiron was the son of Cronos. Like Chiron, he was celebrated for his wisdom, and acted as the counsellor of the hero, interpreting his dreams, and enabling him to overcome the enemies who attacked him. Chiron met his death at the hand of Heracles, one of whose poisoned arrows struck him, and, though immortal, he would not live any longer, and gave his immortality to Prometheus.... Zeus made Chiron among the stars a Sagittarius. Here again we have a striking echo of the Chaldæan legend, in the Erech story. According to the arrangement of tablets, the death of Hea-bani takes place under the sign of Sagittarius, and is the result of some fatal accident during the combat between Gizdhubar and Khumbaba. Like the Centaurs, before his call to the Court of Gizdhubar, Hea-bani led a wild and savage life. It is said on the tablets ‘that he consorted with the wild beasts. With the gazelles he took his food by night, and consorted with the cattle by day, and rejoiced his heart with the creeping things of the waters.’
“Hea-Bani was true and loyal to Gizdhubar, and when Istar (the Assyrian Venus), foiled in her love for Gizdhubar, flew to heaven to see her father Anu (the Chaldæan Zeus), and to seek redress for the slight put upon her, the latter created a winged bull, called ‘The Bull of Heaven,’ which was sent to earth. Hea-Bani, however, helps his lord, the bull is slain, and the two companions enter Erech in triumph. Hea-Bani met with his death when Gizdhubar fought Khumbaba, and ‘Gizdhubar for Hea-Bani his friend wept bitterly and lay on the ground.’”
Thus, centuries before the Romans had emerged from barbarism, we have the prototype of the classical Centaur, the man-horse. The fabled Centaurs were a people of Thessaly—half-men, half-horses—and their existence is very cloudy. Still, they were often depicted, and the two examples of a male and female Centaur, from a fresco at Pompeii, are charmingly drawn. It will be seen that both are attended by Bacchantes bearing thyrses—a delicate allusion to their love of wine; for it was owing to this weakness that their famous battle with the Lapithæ took place. The Centaurs were invited to the marriage of Hippodamia with Pirithous, and, after the manner of cow-boys “up town,” they got intoxicated, were very rude, and even offered violence to the women present. That, the good knights, Sir Hercules and Sir Theseus, could not stand, and with the Lapithæ, gave the Centaurs a thrashing, and made them retire to Arcadia. They had a second fight over the matter of wine, for the Centaur Pholus gave Hercules to drink of wine meant for him, but in the keeping of the Centaurs, and these ill-conditioned animals resented it, and attacked Hercules with fury. They were fearfully punished, and but few survived.
Pliny pooh-poohs the mythical origin of the Centaurs, and says they were Thessalians, who dwelt along Mount Pelion, and were the first to fight on horseback. Aldrovandus writes that, according to Licosthenes, there were formerly found, in the regions of the Great Tamberlane, Centaurs of such a form as its upper part was that of a man, with two arms resembling those of a toad, and he gives a drawing from that author, so that the reader might diligently meditate whether such an animal was possible in a natural state of things; but the artist seems to have forgotten the fore-legs.
The Gorgon.
In the title-page of one edition of “The Historie of Foure-footed Beastes” (1607) Topsell gives this picture of the Gorgon; and he says, respecting this curious animal, the following:—“Among the manifold and divers sorts of Beasts which are bred in Affricke, it is thought that the Gorgon is brought foorth in that countrey. It is a feareful and terrible beast to behold: it hath high and thicke eie-lids, eies not very great, but much like an Oxes or Bugils, but all fiery bloudy, which neyther looke directly forwarde, nor yet upwards, but continuallye downe to the earth, and therefore are called in Greeke Catobleponta. From the crowne of their head downe to their nose, they have a long hanging mane, which makes them to look fearefully. It eateth deadly and poysonfull hearbs, and if at any time he see a Bull, or other creature whereof he is afraid, he presently causeth his mane to stand upright, and, being so lifted up, opening his lips, and gaping wide, sendeth forth of his throat a certaine sharpe and horrible breath, which infecteth, and poysoneth the air above his head, so that all living creatures which draw the breath of that aire are greevously afflicted thereby, loosing both voyce and sight, they fall into leathall and deadly convulsions. It is bred in Hesperia and Lybia.
“The Poets have a fiction that the Gorgones were the Daughters of Medusa and Phorcynis, and are called Steingo, and by Hesiodus, Stheno, and Eyryale inhabiting the Gorgadion Ilands in the Æthiopick Ocean, over against the gardens of Hesperia. Medusa is said to have the haires of his head to be living Serpentes, against whom Perseus fought, and cut off his hed, for which cause he was placed in heaven on the North side of the Zodiacke above the Waggon, and on the left hand holding the Gorgons head. The truth is that there were certaine Amazonian women in Affricke divers from the Scythians, against whom Perseus made warre, and the captaine of those women was called Medusa, whom Perseus overthrew, and cut off her head, and from thence came the Poet’s fiction describing Snakes growing out of it as is aforesaid. These Gorgons are bred in that countrey, and have such haire about their heads, as not onely exceedeth all other beastes, but also poysoneth, when he standeth upright. Pliny calleth this beast Catablepon,29 because it continually looketh downwards, and saith all the parts of it are but smal excepting the head, which is very heavy, and exceedeth the proportion of his body, which is never lifted up, but all living creatures die that see his eies.
“By which there ariseth a question whether the poison which he sendeth foorth, proceede from his breath, or from his eyes. Whereupon it is more probable, that like the Cockatrice, he killeth by seeing, than by the breath of his mouth, which is not competible to any other beasts in the world. Besides, when the Souldiers of Marius followed Iugurtha, they saw one of these Gorgons, and, supposing it was some sheepe, bending the head continually to the earth, and moving slowly, they set upon him with their swords, whereat the Beast, disdaining, suddenly discovered his eies, setting his haire upright, at the sight whereof the Souldiers fel downe dead.
“Marius, hearing thereof, sent other souldiers to kill the beaste, but they likewise died, as the former. At last the inhabitantes of the countrey, tolde the Captaine the poyson of this beast’s nature, and that if he were not killed upon a Sodayne, with onely the sight of his eies he sent death into his hunters: then did the Captaine lay an ambush of souldiers for him, who slew him sodainely with their speares, and brought him to the Emperour, whereupon Marius sent his skinne to Rome, which was hung up in the Temple of Hercules, wherein the people were feasted after the triumphes; by which it is apparent that they kill with their eies, and not with their breath....
“But to omit these fables, it is certaine that sharp poisoned sightes are called Gorgon Blepen, and therefore we will followe the Authoritie of Pliny and Athenæus. It is a beast set all over with scales like a Dragon, having no haire except on his head, great teeth like Swine, having wings to flie, and hands to handle, in stature betwixt a Bull and a Calfe.
“There be Ilandes called Gorgonies, wherein these monster-Gorgons were bredde, and unto the daies of Pliny, the people of that countrey retained some part of their prodigious nature. It is reported by Xenophon, that Hanno, King of Carthage, ranged with his armie in that region, and founde there, certaine women of incredible swiftenesse and perniscitie of foote. Whereof he tooke two onely of all that appeared in sight, which had such roughe and sharp bodies, as never before were seene. Wherefore, when they were dead, he hung up their skinnes in the Temple of Juno, for a monument of their straunge natures, which remained there untill the destruction of Carthage. By the consideration of this beast, there appeareth one manifest argument of the Creator’s devine wisdome and providence, who hath turned the eies of this beaste downeward to the earth, as it were thereby burying his poyson from the hurt of man; and shaddowing them with rough, long and strong haire, that their poysoned beames should not reflect upwards, untill the beast were provoked by feare or danger, the heavines of his head being like a clogge to restraine the liberty of his poysonfull nature, but what other partes, vertues or vices, are contained in the compasse of this monster, God onely knoweth, who, peradventure, hath permitted it to live uppon the face of the earth, for no other cause but to be a punishment and scourge unto mankind; and an evident example of his owne wrathfull power to everlasting destruction. And this much may serve for a description of this beast, untill by God’s providence, more can be known thereof.”
The Unicorn.
What a curious belief was that of the Unicorn! Yet what mythical animal is more familiar to Englishmen? In its present form it was not known to the ancients, not even to Pliny, whose idea of the Monoceros or Unicorn is peculiar. He describes this animal as having “the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the horse: it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two cubits in length. This animal, it is said, cannot be taken alive.”
Until James VI. of Scotland ascended the English throne as James I., the Unicorn, as it is now heraldically portrayed (which was a supporter to the arms of James IV.) was almost unknown—vide Tempest, iii. 3. 20:—
“Alonzo. Give us kind keepers, heavens: what were these?
Sebastian. A living drollery. Now I will believe that there are unicorns.”
Spenser, who died before the accession of James I., and therefore did not write about the supporters of the Royal Arms, alludes (in his Faerie Queene) to the antagonism between the Lion and the Unicorne.
Pliny makes no mention of the Unicorn as we have it heraldically represented, but speaks of the Indian Ass, which, he says, is only a one-horned animal. Other old naturalists, with the exception of Ælian, do not mention it as our Unicorn—and his description of it hardly coincides. He says that the Brahmins tell of the wonderful beasts in the inaccessible regions of the interior of India, among them being the Unicorn, “which they call Cartazonon, and say that it reaches the size of a horse of mature age, possesses a mane and reddish-yellow hair, and that it excels in swiftness through the excellence of its feet and of its whole body. Like the elephant it has inarticulate feet, and it has a boar’s tail; one black horn projects between the eyebrows, not awkwardly, but with a certain natural twist, and terminating in a sharp point.”
Guillim, who wrote on heraldry in 1610, gives, in his Illustrations, indifferently the tail of this animal, as horse or ass; and, as might be expected from one of his craft, magnifies the Unicorn exceedingly:—“The Unicorn hath his Name of his one Horn on his Forehead. There is another Beast of a huge Strength and Greatness, which hath but one Horn, but that is growing on his Snout, whence he is called Rinoceros, and both are named Monoceros, or One horned. It hath been much questioned among Naturalists, which it is that is properly called the Unicorn: And some hath made Doubt whether there be any such Beast as this, or no. But the great esteem of his Horn (in many places to be seen) may take away that needless scruple....
“Touching the invincible Nature of this Beast, Job saith, ‘Wilt thou trust him because his Strength is great, and cast thy Labour unto him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy Barn?’ And his Vertue is no less famous than his Strength, in that his Horn is supposed to be the most powerful Antidote against Poison: Insomuch as the general Conceit is, that the wild Beasts of the Wilderness use not to drink of the Pools, for fear of the venemous Serpents there breeding, before the Unicorn hath stirred it with his Horn. Howsoever it be, this Charge may very well be a Representation both of Strength or Courage, and also of vertuous Dispositions and Ability to do Good; for to have Strength of Body, without the Gifts and good Qualities of the Mind, is but the Property of an Ox, but where both concur, that may truly be called Manliness. And that these two should consort together, the Ancients did signify, when they made this one Word, Virtus, to imply both the Strength of Body, and Vertue of the Mind....
“It seemeth, by a Question moved by Farnesius, That the Unicorn is never taken alive; and the Reason being demanded, it is answered ‘That the greatness of his Mind is such, that he chuseth rather to die than to be taken alive: Wherein (saith he) the Unicorn and the valiant-minded Souldier are alike, which both contemn Death, and rather than they will be compelled to undergo any base Servitude or Bondage, they will lose their Lives.’...
“The Unicorn is an untameable Beast by Nature, as may be gathered from the Words of Job, chap. 39, ‘Will the Unicorn serve thee, or will he tarry by thy Crib? Can’st thou bind the Unicorn with his Band to labour in the Furrow, or will he plough the Valleys after thee?’”
Topsell dilates at great length on the Unicorn. He agrees with Spenser and Guillim, and says:—“These Beasts are very swift, and their legges have no Articles (joints). They keep for the most part in the desarts, and live solitary in the tops of the Mountaines. There was nothing more horrible than the voice or braying of it, for the voice is strain’d above measure. It fighteth both with the mouth and with the heeles, with the mouth biting like a Lyon, and with the heeles kicking like a Horse.... He feereth not Iron nor any yron Instrument (as Isodorus writeth) and that which is most strange of all other, it fighteth with his owne kind, yea even with the females unto death, except when it burneth in lust for procreation: but unto straunger Beasts, with whome he hath no affinity in nature, he is more sotiable and familiar, delighting in their company when they come willing unto him, never rising against them; but, proud of their dependence and retinue, keepeth with them all quarters of league and truce; but with his female, when once his flesh is tickled with lust, he groweth tame, gregall, and loving, and so continueth till she is filled and great with young, and then returneth to his former hostility.”
There was a curious legend of the Unicorn, that it would, by its keen scent, find out a maiden, and run to her, laying its head in her lap. This is often used as an emblem of the Virgin Mary, to denote her purity. The following is from the Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, and, as its old French is easily read, I have not translated it:—
Topsell, of course, tells the story:—“It is sayd that Unicorns above all other creatures, doe reverence Virgines and young Maides, and that many times at the sight of them they grow tame, and come and sleepe beside them, for there is in their nature a certaine savor, wherewithall the Unicornes are allured and delighted; for which occasion the Indian and Ethiopian hunters use this stratagem to take the beast. They take a goodly, strong, and beautifull young man, whom they dresse in the Apparell of a woman, besetting him with divers odoriferous flowers and spices.
“The man so adorned they set in the Mountaines or Woods, where the Unicorne hunteth, so as the wind may carrie the savor to the beast, and in the meane season the other hunters hide themselves: the Unicorne deceaved with the outward shape of a woman, and sweete smells, cometh to the young man without feare, and so suffereth his head to bee covered and wrapped within his large sleeves, never stirring, but lying still and asleepe, as in his most acceptable repose. Then, when the hunters, by the signe of the young man, perceave him fast and secure, they come uppon him, and, by force, cut off his horne, and send him away alive: but, concerning this opinion wee have no elder authoritie than Tzetzes, who did not live above five hundred yeares agoe, and therefore I leave the reader to the freedome of his owne judgment, to believe or refuse this relation; neither is it fit that I should omit it, seeing that all writers, since the time of Tzetzes, doe most constantly beleeve it.
“It is sayd by Ælianus and Albertus, that, except they bee taken before they bee two yeares old they will never bee tamed; and that the Thrasians doe yeerely take some of their Colts, and bring them to their King, which he keepeth for combat, and to fight with one another; for when they are old, they differ nothing at all from the most barbarous, bloodie, and ravenous beasts. Their flesh is not good for meate, but is bitter and unnourishable.”
It is hardly worth while to go into all the authorities treating of the Unicorn; suffice it to say, that it was an universal belief that there were such animals in existence, for were not their horns in proof thereof? and were they not royal presents fit for the mightiest of potentates to send as loving pledges one to another? for it was one of the most potent of medicines, and a sure antidote to poison. And they were very valuable, too, for Paul Hentzner—who wrote in the time of Queen Elizabeth—says that, at Windsor Castle, he was shown, among other things, the horn of an Unicorn of above eight spans and a half in length, i.e., about 6½ feet, valued at £10,000. Considering that money was worth then about three times what it is now, an Unicorn’s horn was a right royal gift.
Topsell, from whom I have quoted so much, is especially voluminous and erudite on Unicorns; indeed, in no other old or new author whom I have consulted are there so many facts (?) respecting this fabled beast to be found. Here is his history of those horns then to be found in Europe:—
“There are two of these at Venice in the Treasurie of S. Marke’s Church, as Brasavolus writeth, one at Argentoratum, which is wreathed about with divers sphires.30 There are also two in the Treasurie of the King of Polonia, all of them as long as a man in his stature. In the yeare 1520, there was found the horne of a Unicorne in the river Arrula, neare Bruga in Helvetia, the upper face or out side whereof was a darke yellow; it was two cubites (3 feet) in length, but had upon it no plights31 or wreathing versuus. It was very odoriferous (especially when any part of it was set on fire), so that it smelt like muske: as soone as it was found, it was carried to a Nunnery called Campus regius, but, afterwards by the Governor of Helvetia, it was recovered back againe, because it was found within his teritorie....
“Another certaine friend of mine, being a man worthy to be beleeved, declared unto me that he saw at Paris, with the Chancellor, being Lord of Pratus, a peece of a Unicorn’s horn, to the quantity of a cubit, wreathed in tops or spires, about the thicknesse of an indifferent staffe (the compasse therof extending to the quantity of six fingers) being within, and without, of a muddy colour, with a solide substance, the fragments whereof would boile in the Wine although they were never burned, having very little or no smell at all therein.
“When Joannes Ferrerius of Piemont had read these thinges, he wrote unto me, that, in the Temple of Dennis, neare unto Paris, that there was a Unicorne’s horne six foot long, ... but that in bignesse, it exceeded the horne at the Citty of Argentorate, being also holow almost a foot from that part which sticketh unto the forehead of the Beast, this he saw himselfe in the Temple of S. Dennis, and handled the horne with his handes as long as he would. I heare that in the former yeare (which was from the yeare of our Lord), 1553, when Vercella was overthrown by the French, there was broght from that treasure unto the King of France, a very great Unicorn’s horne, the price wherof was valued at fourscore thousand Duckets.32
“Paulus Poæius describeth an Unicorne in this manner; That he is a beast, in shape much like a young Horse, of a dusty colour, with a maned necke, a hayry beard, and a forehead armed with a Horne of the quantity of two Cubits, being seperated with pale tops or spires, which is reported by the smoothnes and yvorie whitenesse thereof, to have the wonderfull power of dissolving and speedy expelling of all venome or poison whatsoever.
“For his horne being put into the water, driveth away the poison, that he may drinke without harme, if any venemous beast shall drinke therein before him. This cannot be taken from the Beast, being alive, for as much as he cannot possible be taken by any deceit: yet it is usually seene that the horne is found in the desarts, as it happeneth in Harts, who cast off their olde horne thorough the inconveniences of old age, which they leave unto the Hunters, Nature renewing an other unto them.
“The horne of this beast being put upon the Table of Kinges, and set amongest their junkets and bankets, doeth bewray the venome, if there be any suche therein, by a certaine sweat which commeth over it. Concerning these hornes, there were two seene, which were two cubits in length, of the thicknesse of a man’s Arme, the first at Venice, which the Senate afterwards sent for a gift unto Solyman the Turkish Emperor: the other being almost of the same quantity, and placed in a Sylver piller, with a shorte or cutted33 point, which Clement the Pope or Bishop of Rome, being come unto Marssels brought unto Francis the King, for an excellent gift.”... They adulterated the real article, for sale. “Petrus Bellonius writeth, that he knewe the tooth of some certaine Beast, in time past, sold for the horne of a Unicorne (what beast may be signified by this speech I know not, neither any of the French men which do live amongst us) and so smal a peece of the same, being adulterated, sold ‘sometimes for 300 Duckets.’ But, if the horne shall be true and not counterfait, it doth, notwithstanding, seeme to be of that creature which the Auncientes called by the name of an Unicorne, especially Ælianus, who only ascribeth to the same this wonderfull force against poyson and most grievous diseases, for he maketh not this horne white as ours doth seeme, but outwardly red, inwardly white, and in the Middest or secretest part only blacke.”
Having dilated so long upon the Unicorn, it would be a pity not to give some idea of the curative properties of its horn—always supposing that it could be obtained genuine, for there were horrid suspicions abroad that it might be “the horne of some other beast brent in the fire, some certaine sweet odors being thereunto added, and also imbrued in some delicious and aromaticall perfume. Peradventure also, Bay by this means, first burned, and afterwards quenched, or put out with certaine sweet smelling liquors.” To be of the proper efficacy it should be taken new, but its power was best shown in testing poisons, when it sweated, as did also a stone called “the Serpent’s tongue.” And the proper way to try whether it was genuine or not, was to give Red Arsenic or Orpiment to two pigeons, and then to let them drink of two samples; if genuine, no harm would result—if adulterated, or false, the pigeons would die.
It was also considered a cure for Epilepsy, the Pestilent Fever or Plague, Hydrophobia, Worms in the intestines, Drunkenness, &c., &c.,—and it also made the teeth clean and white;—in fact, it had so many virtues that “no home should be without it.”
And all this about a Narwhal’s horn!
The Rhinoceros.
The true Unicorn is, of course, the Rhinoceros, and this picture of it is as early an one as I can find, being taken from Aldrovandus de Quad, A.D. 1521. Gesner and Topsell both reproduce it, at later dates, but reversed. The latter says that Gesner drew it from the life at Lisbon—but having Aldrovandus and the others before me, I am bound to give the palm to the former, and confess the others to be piracies. It is certain, however, that whoever drew this picture of a Rhinoceros must have seen one, either living or stuffed, for it is not too bizarre.