366 CHINA. 



The Unicorn is the Rhinoceros, sketched thus from report ; 

 but the Narwhal's tusk having come to hand as the Unicorn's 

 horn, it was placed on the forehead of*the animal, in the draw- 

 ings, and the beast still wears it in our Royal Arms.* There 

 is the germ of truth in the case of the Narwhal's tusk, that the 

 tusk grows without a fellow on the animal's head ; no doubt 

 it was this fact that led to the blunder. Marco Polo was 

 astonished to find how different the real Unicorn was from the 

 pictures of it which he had been accustomed to see. 



The Japanese dealers in carved ivories at Kioto, who speak 

 a few words of English, draw attention to " netskis " cut out 

 of Narwhal ivory, as made from " Unicorn." I suppose this 

 is a survival of rn old European term for the tusk, derived from 

 the Portuguese. 



The Uragon, however, seems to have had a different mode 

 of origin, and to have sprung from the finding together in a 

 fossil deposit of the bones of various animals, and the infer- 

 ence, that because they were found together they belonged to 

 one animal. An attempt at reconstruction produced the 

 Dragon, and this accounts for the animal possessing stags' 

 horns and carnivorous teeth, and containing in its structure a 

 little of everything. 



My friend, Mr. C. V. Creagh, of Hong Kong, kindly trans- 

 lated for me an account of the Dragons' bones and teeth given 

 in a well-known Chinese work, " The Botanical and Medical 

 Works of Li She Chan," sometimes called " Li Poon Woo," 

 Vol. XLIIL I give the account here because it is amusing 

 in many ways as a sample of a Chinese medical work, and 

 seems to bear out the above conjecture as to the origin of the 

 Dragon, or of part of the animal's structure at least. 



Translation. " Dragon's bones come from the southern 

 part of Shansi, and are found on the mountains. Dr. To 

 Wang King, says that if they are genuine they will adhere to 

 the tongue. He informs us that the bones are cast off by the 

 Dragon. Dr. So Tsung says, that in the autumn a certain 

 fish changes itself into a Dragon, and leaves its original bones, 

 which are of five different colours, and are used by men as 

 medicine. In Shanshi is the Dragon-gate, through which 

 when the fish leaps it becomes a Dragon. 



" Dr. Kai Tsung Shik says, that it is well known that the 



* "The Book of Ser Marco Polo," Vol. 11., p. 273. Col. H. Yule, 

 C.B. London, Murray, 1875. 



The last attempt to resuscitate the heraldic Unicorn, and prove its 

 actual existence as such, was made in 1852, by Baron J. W. von Miiller, 

 "Das Einhorn vom geschichtlichen und naturwissenschaftlichen Stand- 

 punkte betrachtet." Stuttgart, 1S52. 



