History of the Rhinoceros 155 



naturally, as the south bordered on Indo-China, where the two-horned 

 species abounded, and a lively trade in its horn was carried on at all 

 times. Hence in the primeval period represented by the songs of the 

 Shi king the rhinoceros is styled se. 



The philological students of China will certainly feel somewhat un- 

 easy at the thought that an animal like the rhinoceros should have been 

 within the vision of the early Chinese. We are all wont to look at 



It seems to have received a fresh impetus from India in the sixteenth century. The 

 Portuguese physician Garcia Ab Horto (Aromatum et Simplicium aliquot, p. 66, 

 Antverpiae, 1567; or Due libri dell' historia dei semplici, aromati, et altre cose che 

 vengono portate dall' Indie Orientali pertinenti all' uso della medicina, p. 58, Venetia, 

 1582) first reports from personal experience that rhinoceros-horn is employed in 

 Bengal as an antipoisonous remedy, and goes on to tell that this is a fact established 

 by experiments ; his story is that of two poisoned dogs — the one who had swallowed 

 double the dose was cured after taking in water a powder prepared from the horn, 

 while the other dog, who had been given but a small quantity of poison and did not 

 receive the remedy of the horn, was doomed to death. Doctor Nicolo Monardes, 

 physician in Sevilla (Delle cose che vengono portate dall' Indie occidentali pertinenti 

 all' uso della medicina, p. 72, Venetia, 1582), has the following account: "L' Unicorno 

 vero e cosa di maggiore effetto, che habbiamo veduto, e nella quale si trova maggiore 

 esperienza; del quale poco si scrive. Solo Philostrato nella vita di Apollonio dice, 

 essere contra il veneno; il que ampliarono molto i Moderni. Bisogna, che sia del vero; 

 perche ne sono molti di falsi, e finti. Io vidi in questa citta un Vinitiano, che ne port6 

 un pezzo molto grande, e ne dimandava cinquecento scudi ; delquale f ece in mia pre- 

 senza la esperienza. Prese un filo, e lo unse molto bene con Elleboro, e lo passo per le 

 creste di due polli; all' uno de'quali diede un poco di Unicorno raso in un poco di 

 acqua comune; e all' altro non diede cosa alcuna. Questo mori tra un quarto di hora; 

 l'altro che prese l'Unicorno duro due giorni, senza voler mangiare, e alia fine di due 

 giorni moii, secco come un legno. Credo io, che se si desse ad huomo, che non mor- 

 rebbe; perche tiene le vie piu aperte da potere scacciare da se il veneno; e gli si pub 

 ancho fare de gli altri rimedij, col mezzo de' quali, e coll' Unicorno potrebbe liberarsi. 

 Di tutte queste Medicine compongo io una polvere, che cosi per qualita manifeste, 

 come per proprietadi occulte ha gran virtu, e e di grande efficacia contra tutti i veneni, 

 e contra le febbri Pestilentiali, 6 che habbiano mala qualita; 6 cagione venenosa." 

 Then he describes the composition of this remedy. This European doctor was a 

 contemporary of Li Shi-chen. Who, after reading the confession of his firm belief 

 in the virtues of rhinoceros-horn, will blame the Chinese physicist? In the court 

 ceremonial of France as late as 1789, instruments of unicorn-horn are said to have 

 been employed for testing the royal food for poison. — Chinese lore of the rhinoceros 

 is based on actual observation and speculation built thereon. Not only, as previously 

 pointed out, are the observations of the Chinese in this line more complete, but even 

 more accurate, than those of the classical peoples. In fact, the Chinese adopted noth- 

 ing from the latter as to their notions of the animal. It is of especial interest that the 

 fantastic belief of the ancients in the mobility of the horn is entirely absent in China. 

 Pliny (Nat. hist., vm, 21, §73; ed. Mayhoff, Vol. II, p. 103) observes in regard to 

 the an:mal eale, which has been regarded by some authors as the two-horned rhi- 

 noceros, " It has movable horns several cubits long, which it can alternately raise in a 

 combat and turn straightforward or obliquely, according to opportunity" (maiora 

 cubitalibus cornua habens mobilia, quae alterna in pugna sistit variatque infesta aut 

 obliqua, utcumque ratio monstravit). The mobility of the horn is insisted on by 

 Cosmas: "When it is wandering about, the horns are mobile; but when it sees any- 

 thing which excites its rage, it stiffens them, and they become so rigid that they are 

 strong enough to tear up even trees with the roots — those especially which come 

 in the way of the front horn" (McCrindle, Ancient India, p. 156). In a similar 

 manner al-Beruni (Sachau, Alberuni's India, Vol. I, p. 204) says about the African 

 rhinoceros that its second and longer horn becomes erect as soon as the animal wants 

 to ram with it. 



