Foure-Footed Beastes. 283 



the list of fearsome beasts with which Topsell was 

 acquainted, and did space permit we could tell of 

 that (C cruell, untamable, impatient, violent, raven- 

 ing, and bloudy beaste," the Su, a native of Pata- 

 gonia, and of many others, equally fierce and 

 equally mythical ; also of the Unicorn, whose horn 

 as shown in its picture is palpably the tooth of a 

 narwhal, and of other fabulous, but harmless, 

 creatures ; but our quotations are sufficient to show 

 the extraordinary fables which in Topsell's days 

 did duty for zoological facts. No doubt they were 

 days of unlimited faith in the marvellous, but even 

 then we imagine that the learned divine could 

 hardly have been disappointed in his expectation 

 of drawing many of the vulgar sort "upon his 

 backe. 



