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From: Indica, by Ctesias.
398bce
“There are in
India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger.
Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue.
They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in
length. The dust filed from this horn is administered in a potion as a
protection against deadly drugs. The base of this horn, for some two
hands’-breadth above the brow, is pure white; the upper part is sharp
and of a vivid crimson; and the remainder, or middle portion, is black.
Those who drink out of these horns, made into drinking vessels, are not
subject, they say, to convulsions or to the holy disease [epilepsy].
Indeed, they are immune even to poisons if, either before or after
swallowing such, they drink wine, water, or anything else from these
beakers. Other asses, both the tame and the wild, and in fact all
animals with solid hoofs, are without the ankle-bone and the gall. This
ankle-bone, the most beautiful I have ever seen, is like that of an ox
in general appearance and in size, but it is as heavy as lead and its
colour is that of cinnabar through and through. The animal is
exceedingly swift and powerful, so that no creature, neither the horse
nor any other, can overtake it.”
Ctesias also describes
the manner in which it fights, “with horn, teeth and heels.”
Additionally he adds that
the flesh of a unicorn is very bitter, too bitter to be eaten.
Ctesias
(Tee-See-us) was a Greek doctor who was appointed to the court of Darius
II, King of Persia in 416bce. Indica is one of two works he wrote
upon his return, the other book remains only in fragments. In the last
part of the Indica, Ctesias asserts that his book is “perfectly
true, that he has set down nothing which he has not either seen himself or
else heard from the mouths of credible witnesses. Indeed, says he, many
more wonderful things than he has put into his book have been left out
simply because he does not wish to be thought a liar.” (1)
Aristotle also made a few references
to the unicorn in Ibid. In it he writes, “We have never seen an
animal with a solid hoof and with two horns, and there are only a few that
have a slid hoof and one horn, as the Indian ass and the oryx. Of all
animals with a solid hoof, the Indian ass alone as a talus.”
Five
hundred years later, Pliny (23-79ce) & Aelian (170-235ce) site seven
species of unicorn: the rhinoceros, the Indian ass, the oryx, the Indian
ox, the Indian horse, the bison, and the unicorn proper. Aelian wrote
three passages about the unicorn, much of which echo the statements of
Ctesias. This is the second passage:
“I have
found that wild asses as large as horses are to be seen in India. The
body of this animal is white, except on the head, which is read, while
the eyes are azure. It has a horn on the brow, about one cubit and a
half in length, which is white at the base, crimson at the top, and
black between. These variegated horns, I learn, are used as
drinking-cups by the Indians – although not, to be sure, by all of the
people. Only the great men use them, after having them ringed about
with hoops of gold exactly as they would put bracelets on some beautiful
statue. And it is said that whosoever drinks from this kind of horn is
safe from all incurable diseases such as convulsions and the so-called
holy disease, and that he cannot be killed by poison.”
(2)
Later he discusses the
creatures black ankle-bone, its propensity for fighting with its horn,
teeth & heels, as well as its bitter-tasting flesh. In the third passage
he writes,
“that
there are mountains in the interior regions of India which are
inaccessible to men and therefore full of wild beasts. Among these is
the unicorn, which they call the ‘cartazon.’ This animal is as large as
a full-grown horse, and it has a mane, tawny hair, feet like those of
the elephant, and the tail of a goat. It is exceedingly swift of foot.
Between its brow there stands a single black horn, not smooth but with
certain natural rings, and tapering to a very sharp point. Of all
animals, this one has the most dissonant voice. With beasts of other
species that approach it the ‘cartazon’ is gentle, but it fights with
those of its own kind, and not only do the males fight naturally among
themselves but they contend even against the females and push the
contest to the death. The animal has great strength of body, and it is
armed besides with an unconquerable horn. In the season of rut it grows
gentle towards the chosen female and they pasture side by side, but when
this time is over he becomes wild again and wanders alone. They say
that the young ones are sometimes taken to the king to be exhibited in
contests on days of festival, because of their strength, but no one
remembers the capture of a single specimen of mature age.”
(3)
This description
more or less matches the rhinoceros, not the unicorn of common legend.
The horn is one of the notable inconsistencies with the rhinoceros as it
has a smooth horn; the description of the horn would seem to be that of an
antelope. However, Aelian knew the rhinoceros well but does not seem to
see a parallel between it and the cartazon. He even goes so far as to say
the catazon has a horn between its brow and that it would be ridiculous to
describe the rhinoceros since it is so familiar to all Greeks and Romans.
Pliny’s description in some respects
echoes that of Aelian and Ctesias. He says:
“The Orsæan Indians hunt an exceedingly wild beast call the
monoceros, which has a stag’s head, elephant’s feet, and a boar’s tail,
the rest of its body being like that of a horse. It makes a deep lowing
noise, and one black horn two cubits long projects from the middle of its
forehead. This animal, they say, cannot be taken alive.” (4)
Jeronimo Lobo, a Jesuit missionary who died in 1678, travel widely
in India and Ethiopia. In his manuscript he claimed to have personally
seen a unicorn: "... In the Province of Agaus has been
seen the Unicorn, that Beast so much talk'd of and so little known; the
prodigious Swiftness with which this Creature runs from one Wood into
another has given me no Opportunity of examining it particularly, yet I
have had so near a sight of it as to be able to give some description of
it. The Shape is the same as that of a beautiful Horse, exact and nicely
proportion'd, of a Bay Colour, with a black Tail, which in some
Provinces is long, in others very short; some have long Manes hanging to
the Ground. They are so Timerous that they never Feed but surrounded
with other Beasts that defend them."
(1) The
Lore of the Unicorn. Odell Shepard. Avenel Books. ©1930
(2) Ibid. iv. 52.
(3) Ibid., xvi. 20.
(4)
Hist. Nat. viii. 33.
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