Chap. 32.] AKIHALS OF ^ETHIOPIA. 281 



like that of a fawn, but with numerous spots on it, and whiter ; M 

 this animal is looked upon as sacred to Bacchus. The Orsasan 

 Indians hunt down a kind of ape, which has the body white 66 all 

 over ; as well as a very fierce animal called the monoceros, 57 

 which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and 

 the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the 

 horse ; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black 

 horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two 

 cubits in length. 58 This animal, it is said, cannot be taken 

 alive. 



CHAP. 32. THE ANIMALS OF ^ETHIOPIA ; A WILD BEAST WHICH 



KILLS WITH ITS EYE. 



Among the Hesperian ^Ethiopians is the fountain of Nigris, bv 

 many, supposed to be the head of the Nile. I have already men- 

 tioned the arguments by which this opinion is supported. 59 Near 

 this fountain, there is found a wild beast, which is called the 

 catoblepas ; 60 an animal of moderate size, and in other respects 

 sluggish in the movement of the rest of its limbs ; its head 

 is remarkably heavy, and it only carries it with the greatest 

 difficulty, being always bent down towards the earth. Were 

 it not for this circumstance, it would prove the destruction of 



55 Probably the stag of the Ganges, the " Cervus axis" of Linnaeus ; but 

 if so, Pliny has omitted to mention the horns. B. 



56 White apes are now unknown, as a distinct species, but individuals 

 are occasionally found nearly without colour. B. 



& The " one-horned," or the unicorn. 



68 We have a discussion by Cuvier, respecting the existence of the uni- 

 corn, or of any animal similar to that here described, with a single horn. 

 He remarks, that the only single-horned quadruped of which we have any 

 certain knowledge, is the rhinoceros, and that the only horns which have 

 been discovered, and which can have been single horns, belong to it. There 

 are five animals mentioned by the ancients, as having single horns, the In- 

 dian ass, the single-horned horse, the single-horned ox, the monoceros, 

 described in the text, and the oryx of Africa, which Pliny speaks of in c. 

 79 of this Book, and in B. xi. c. 106. There are many curious accounts 

 given by travellers of acknowledged veracity, respecting animals seen in 

 the more remote parts of Asia and Africa, answering to the description of 

 the unicorn, and there are representations of the same in ancient sculptures ; 

 but they do not amount to that kind of evidence which can at all supply 

 the place of direct proof. B. 



59 These will be found in B. v. c. 10. 



00 From jcara/SXtTTw, "to look downwards." 



