III. The Unicorn Proper. — 1. Le(jendary Notices.^ Throughout classical antiquity (as seen above) vague ni>tions of a true unicorn prevailed. In the o)'0( aypioi of Ctesias, which were larger than horses — white, with a horn on the forehead a cubit long, which were very swift and strong, not ferocious unless at- tacked, and then irresistible, so that they could not be taken alive — we can trace the original of the familiar form that figures in the English national heraldic shield. — -
Aristotle and Herodotus follow Ctesias, and Strabo ijives the unicorn a deer-like head. Oppian makes it a bull with im- divided hoofs and a frontal horn ; and Cfe- sar, who puts it in the Hercynian forest, gives its single horn palmate branches like those of a deer. Pliny draws the portrait with the greatest attention to details. It was a most savage beast, generally like a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar, a deep bel- lowing voice, and a single black horn, two cubits long, projecting from the middle of its forehead. See the Ann. and Mu<j. of Nat. Hist. Nov. 18G2.
Although the medallic history of the
kings of Macedon (Havercampius,Gf«.//i«/.[in the Dutch language]) furnishes no coins bearing a single-honu'd goat, it is still asserted by Maillot and others that such was to be found among their ensigns; but this was most probably after the Macedonian conipiest; for a single- horned ibex appears on the bas-reliefs of Che el-Minar; another occurs on a cylinder; and one cast in brass, sup- posed to have been the head of a Macedonian standard, was found in Asia Minor, and presented to the Antiquari- an Society of London. If mysterious names were resolv- able by the canons of pictorial detinition, the practice of imagining horns to be affixed to the most sublime and sacred objects would be most evident from the radical meaning of the word cherub, where the notion of horns is everywhere blended with that of "power and great- ness." See CiiEKUUiM. There were also horns at the corners of altars — the beast with ten horns in Daniel, etc. (ch. vii). In profane history we have the goat- head ornament on the helmet of the kings of Persia, according to Ammianns, more probably Ammon horns: such Alexander the Great had assumed ; and his suc- cessors in P^gypt and in Persia continued a custom even now observed by the chief cabossiers of Ashantee, who have a similar ram-head of solid gold on the front of their plnniy war-caps. Indeed, from early antiquity Greek and Ionian helmets were often adi)rned with two horns; among others the head of Seleucus I (Nicator) appears thus on his coins. The practice extended to metal horns being affixed to the masks or chaff'rons of war-horses (so coins of Seleucus Nicator) and of ele- phants (Antiochus Soter) ; and they form still, or did lately, a part of the barbed horse-armor in Kajahstan. Triple-horned and bicorned helmets are found on early Gallic and Iberian coins ; they were again in use dur- ing the chivalrous ages; but the most remarkable, the horn of strength and dominion, is seen elevated on the front of the helmet impressed on the reverse of the coins of the tyrant Tryphon, who, in his endeavore to obtain Syria, was at war with Antiochus Sidetes during the iera of the Maccabees, and was not likely to omit any attribute that once belonged to its ancient kings. See Hoax.
2. Scien/ific Descriptions. — In later times the fancy ran riot in describing and figuring the unicorn, and no one who attempted a I/istoria Aatunilis thought his work complete without full particulars concerning this interesting beast. As some of the descriptions of the ancients were a little inconsistent with each other, and as the materials were too valuable to allow any to be sacrificed, different species of unicorn were esfablished, in the copiousness of which the most fastidious student might satisfy his chtiice. Thus there were the wald- esel, the meer-wolf, the ox-hoofed unicorn, the camel- hoofed unicorn, the sea- unicorn (not the cetacean so named), the two-horned wald-esel (one horn behind the other), and several others, all of which are duly
TJnicoru (Rhinoceros mmun).
UNICULUS
640
UNION WITH CHRIST
fiijiircd by the indefatigable Johnston (Hist. A'af. KJoT).
Adiiiittincj that there is abiindanco of chaff in all tills, naturalists have for some time been inclining to admit that there may be some little wheat also (see Meyer. Ueb.d. Sdiigthkr Reem [ Leips. ITlHiJ). 'I'lie rhi- noceroses of India and Africa showetl that a single cen- tral horn was not in itself unnatural; and the discov- ery of several species of this huge pachyderm in the soutiiern parts of the latter continent lias brought out some features of the old descriptions which had beeii assumed to be fabulous. Some years since the mis- sionary (!ainiil)ell excited much interest by sending home from South Africa the head of a rhinoceros which came mucti nearer that of the traditionary unicorn than anything as yet known to naturalists. It bore a single straight slender horn, projecting from the face to the height of three feet, with a small tubercle- shaped horn immediately behind this. The zoological researches of Dr. Andrew Smith, and the exploits of not a few naturalist sportsmen in the wild-beast regions lying to the north of the Cape Colony, have made ns familiar with this species Qihinoceros sit/ills'), as well as others with a similar arrangement of horns. — Kitto; Smith ; Fairbairn.