My last blog, taken from information in the Manchester Iris volume 1, covered the “Devil-Sticker”, an odd leech-like animal from S. America. Today I continue with the same journal, this time covering a feature on a certain rhinoceros horn that reminded the author of an unicorn.'THE UNICORN
From the Rev John Campbell`s Narratives of a Second Journey in the Interior of Africa vol 1 pp 294-295.
`During our absence from Mashow, two Rhinoceros came into the town during the night, when the inhabitants assembled and killed them both. The rhinoceroses, shot by Jager,on the preceding day, having been cut up, were brought, the one in a wagon, the other on pack-oxen. We divided one among Kossie, Munameets, and Pelangye. They brought also the head of one of them, which was different from all the others that had been killed. The common African Rhinoceros has a crooked horn resembling a cock`s spur, which rises about nine or ten inches above the nose and inclines backwards; immediately behind this is a short thick horn; but the head they brought had a straight horn projecting three feet from the forehead, about ten inches above the tip of the noise. The projection of this great horn very much resembles that of the fanciful Unicorn in the British arms. …The head resembled in size a nine gallon cask, and measured three feet from the mouth to the ear, and being much larger than that of the one with the crooked horn, and which measured eleven feet in length, the animal itself must have been still larger and more formidable. ...Our people wounded another, which they reported to be much larger* [* foothote here reads: 'The head being so weighty; and the distance to the Cape so great, it appeared necessary to cut off the under jaw and leave it behind; (the Mashow who cut off the flesh from it had ten cuts on his back, which were marks for ten men he had killed in his lifetime) The animal is considered by naturalists, since the arrival of the skull in London, to be the unicorn of the ancients, and the same as that which is described in the 39th chapter of the book of Job [the author here may be refering to the horse because there is no other realistic animal it could be in that chapter.] The part of the head brought to London may be seen at the Missionary Museum: and, for such as may not have the opportunity of seeing the head itself, the above drawing [there is an illustration of the head accompanying the essay] of the head itself the above drawing has been made.
There follows notes from 'the Missionary Sketches:'
'Some authors, both ancient and modern, have described an animal, which they call the Unicorn, said to resemble a horse,or deer, with a long horn, represented in English heraldry as one of the supporters of the royal arms; but there is reason to doubt the existence of any such quadruped. It is possible that the long horn ascribed to such an animal is that of a fish,or, as termed by some, a Sea Unicorn, called the Monodon, or Narwhal, confounding the land and sea animal together. The horn of the fish here alluded to, was formerly imposed on the world as the horn of the Unicorn, at an immense price. On the whole, it seems highly probable that the Rhinoceros, having one long horn projecting from its face, is the only Unicorn existing, and although it has a kind of stump of another horn behind the long projecting one, yet that it has been denominated Unicorn, (or one horn) from that which is so obvious and prominent; and certainly its great bulk and strength render it such a formidable and powerful animal as is described in the Sacred Scriptures.' (1)
However, 26 years later a much more suitable candidate for the unicorn turned up in South Africa:
'The longest recorded anterior horn for a rhinoceros is one of 1.58m 62 1/4 in found on a female southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) shot in South Africa in c. 1848. “This is over 6ft long!"' (2)
There is a story of a great black Russian unicorn.:
'The traditional legends of the Evenk or Tungus people, inhabiting the vast taiga forest of Siberia, tell of the erstwhile existence there of a gigantic black bull, distinguished from all normal cattle not merely by its size but also by possessing just a single, median horn, of mighty form,arising from the centre of its brow. According to a detailed account by the 10th-century adlan Muslim travel writer Ahmad bin Fadlan, a comparable single-horned beast also roamed the southern Russian steppes.' (3)
Today I met the lead guitarist of the band `A Flock of Seagulls`. Honest!
1. Manchester Iris vol. 1 23rd February 1822 p.29
2. M.Carwardine The Guinness Book of Animal Records (1995) p.98
3. K.P.N Shuker Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007) p.211
The East is Red. Li Youyuan
The East is Red the sun is rising
China has brought forth a Mao Zedong
He works for the peoples welfare
Hurrah! He is the people`s great saviour!.......etc.
'Some authors, both ancient and modern, have described an animal, which they call the Unicorn, said to resemble a horse,or deer, with a long horn, represented in English heraldry as one of the supporters of the royal arms; but there is reason to doubt the existence of any such quadruped. It is possible that the long horn ascribed to such an animal is that of a fish,or, as termed by some, a Sea Unicorn, called the Monodon, or Narwhal, confounding the land and sea animal together. The horn of the fish here alluded to, was formerly imposed on the world as the horn of the Unicorn, at an immense price. On the whole, it seems highly probable that the Rhinoceros, having one long horn projecting from its face, is the only Unicorn existing, and although it has a kind of stump of another horn behind the long projecting one, yet that it has been denominated Unicorn, (or one horn) from that which is so obvious and prominent; and certainly its great bulk and strength render it such a formidable and powerful animal as is described in the Sacred Scriptures.' (1)
However, 26 years later a much more suitable candidate for the unicorn turned up in South Africa:
'The longest recorded anterior horn for a rhinoceros is one of 1.58m 62 1/4 in found on a female southern white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum simum) shot in South Africa in c. 1848. “This is over 6ft long!"' (2)
There is a story of a great black Russian unicorn.:
'The traditional legends of the Evenk or Tungus people, inhabiting the vast taiga forest of Siberia, tell of the erstwhile existence there of a gigantic black bull, distinguished from all normal cattle not merely by its size but also by possessing just a single, median horn, of mighty form,arising from the centre of its brow. According to a detailed account by the 10th-century adlan Muslim travel writer Ahmad bin Fadlan, a comparable single-horned beast also roamed the southern Russian steppes.' (3)
Today I met the lead guitarist of the band `A Flock of Seagulls`. Honest!
1. Manchester Iris vol. 1 23rd February 1822 p.29
2. M.Carwardine The Guinness Book of Animal Records (1995) p.98
3. K.P.N Shuker Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007) p.211
The East is Red. Li Youyuan
The East is Red the sun is rising
China has brought forth a Mao Zedong
He works for the peoples welfare
Hurrah! He is the people`s great saviour!.......etc.
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