390 KLOOF AND KARROO. 



even, as to gaze on the wondrous Victoria Falls of 

 the Zambesi itself. 



But, perhaps, the chief reason that renders the 

 oryx of interest to Englishmen and Scots, lies in 

 the fact that it is undoubtedly the original of the 

 famous unicorn. Its colour, size, and shape, all 

 point to this conclusion ; and the horns, when seen 

 in profile, appear as one. The ancients seem 

 merely to have invented the forward set of a single 

 horn, to have added a few other touches to the oryx, 

 and to have thus furnished forth the unicorn to 

 puzzle succeeding ages. Ctesias, physician to 

 Artaxerxes Mnemon, who described it, circa 400 B.C., 

 seems to have been the originator of this fable. 



He describes it as a wild ass (Onos agrlos), and 

 from him doubtless has sprung the cloud of mystery 

 in which the unicorn has been enveloped. Aristotle 

 speaks of the oryx and the Indian ass as one-horned ; 

 Pliny follows Aristotle. Loborn, in his history of 

 Abyssinia, describes the unicorn as resembling a 

 beautiful horse. Other ancient authors of Greece 

 and Rome refer to this mythical creature as of the 

 size of a horse, and having the appearance of that 

 animal, with one straight horn, of from one-and-a- 

 half to two cubits in length, planted upon the 

 forehead. Further interesting details had grown with 

 the ages. The body was now described as white, 

 the head red, the eyes blue ; so swift was the 

 unicorn that no horse could overtake it. A legend 

 arose that the unicorn could only be captured by 

 the aid of a virgin. By some ancient writers, the 

 rhinoceros is clearly intended in the description of 

 the unicorn. The English Bible in the Book of 

 Job clearly follows this idea. In those wonderful 



