History of the Rhinoceros 153 



refers to the 'wrath-removing' rhinoceros-horn (kuan, No. 3141,/ew si), 

 from which girdles are made, causing men to abandon their anger; 

 these are scarce and veritable treasures." 



These extracts, ranging from the fifth to the sixteenth century, leave 

 no doubt that during this interval the two words se and si invariably 

 referred to the rhinoceros, that the two species of the single-horned and 

 two-horned animal were recognized, that their geographical distribution 

 was perfectly and correctly known, 1 and that the main characteristics 

 of the animal were seized upon. Among these, the horn naturally 

 attracted widest attention, and in most cases was the only part of the 

 animal that came within the experience of the writers. The wondrous 

 lore surrounding the horn, the supernatural qualities attributed to it, 

 led also to fabulous stories regarding the animal itself, which in the midst 

 of impenetrable forests was seldom exposed to the eye of an observer. 

 A lengthy dissertation on the healing properties of the horn, and on its 

 utilization in prescriptions, is added in the Pen ts'ao hang mu; but this 

 matter has no direct relation to our subject. 2 



Princess T'ung-ch'ang, and consisted of small balls turned from horn, as shown by 

 the description that they were round like the clay pellets used in shooting with the 

 bow tan (No. 10,603). These bows, a combination of a sling with a bow, are still 

 turned out in Peking, and used in slaying birds, to prevent the plumage from being 

 damaged. In India they are known as goolail (Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, 

 p. 386), and are chiefly employed for exterminating crows, being capable of inflicting 

 severe injuries. Every ethnologist is familiar with these sling-bows or pellet-bows, 

 as they are called, and with the difficult problem presented by their geographical dis- 

 tribution over India, south-eastern Asia, and in the valley of the Amazon in South 

 America (compare G. Antze, in Jahrbuch des Museums ftir Volkerkunde zu Leipzig, 

 Vol. Ill, 1908, pp. 79-95; and W. Hough, Am. Anthr., 1912, p. 42). It is further 

 added in the Tu yang, that this horn, when placed in the ground, does not rot, — a 

 notion presumably originated by occasional finds of fossil horns or those acciden- 

 tally shed by the animal. 



1 The case is certainly such that the zoologist, as in so many other cases, is obliged 

 to learn from the historian in regard to the distribution of animals in former periods 

 of history. Our zoogeographers trace the area of the two-horned rhinoceros to Suma- 

 tra, Borneo, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula, and from there extending northward 

 through Burma and Tenasserim to Chittagong and Assam. Our investigation has 

 taught us that it covered in ancient times a much wider geographical zone, including 

 Cambodja, Annam, and southern China, in particular Kuei-chou, Hu-nan, Yun-nan, 

 and Sze-ch'uan. 



2 The theory of Ko Hung or Pao-p'u-tse of the fourth century, as shown above 

 (p. 139), is that the horn can neutralize poison, because the animal devours all sorts 

 of vegetable poisons with its food. Li Shi-chen states that the horn is non-poisonous, 

 and is forestalled in this opinion by T'ang Shen-wei. Shavings of the horn, the decoc- 

 tion of which is taken in fever, small-pox, ophthalmia, etc., are still to be had in all 

 Chinese drug-stores. A specimen obtained by me at Hankow was said to come from 

 Tibet. According to S. W. Williams (The Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 95, Hong- 

 kong, 1863), a decoction of the horn shavings is given to women just before parturi- 

 tion and also to frightened children. As stated by the same author, the skin of 

 the animal is likewise employed in medicine. It is made into a jelly which is highly 

 esteemed, and the same is done with the feet (Soubeiran and Thiersant, La ma- 

 tiere m£dicale chez les Chinois, p. 47, Paris, 1874). This practice presumably 

 originated in Siam. Monseigneur Pallegoix (Description du royaume Thai ou 



