204 DE.SCKIPTIOX OF GKEENLAM). 



to stags which cast their horns ; their heads remain bare as 

 though they never had horns, until the new ones begin to 

 grow again and to take shape. 



But as so long a discourse about horns may be very 

 wearisome, I shall terminate it with the conclusion we must 

 come to respecting the horn, called a unicorn's, which is at 

 St. Denis. I have said that it is in all respects perfectly 

 similar to those of Denmark. To this I shall add, that the 

 Danes consider it a certain flict, and engage to prove it, that 

 all those species of horn which are seen in Muscovy, Ger- 

 many, Italy, and France come from Denmark, where this 

 kind of traffic was much in vogue when the passage from 

 Norway to Greenland was free and known, and when regu- 

 lar passages were made from one to the other every year. 

 The Danes, who sent them to different parts for sale, did not 

 care to say that they were the teeth of fish, but stated that 

 they were the horns of the unicorns, wishing by that means to 

 sell them at a higher price. Having done this formerly, they 

 continue to do it still. It is not long since the New Green- 

 land Company at Copenhagen sent one of their partners to 

 Muscovy with several large pieces of this kind of horn, and 

 among others one of very considerable size, to sell to the 

 Grand Duke of Muscovy. It is said that the Grand Duke 

 thought it very fine, and had it examined by his physician. 

 He knowing more about it than the others, told the Grand 

 Duke that it was the tooth of a fish, and the envoy returned 

 to Copenhagen without selling anything. When he gave an 

 account of his voyage to his partners, he threw all the blame 

 of his misfortune on the wickedness of the physician, who 

 had depreciated his merchandise by saying that all that he 

 had brought was only the teeth of fish. " You managed 

 badly," replied one of his partners, who afterwards told me 

 the story. " Why did you not give two or three hundred 

 ducats to this physician, to persuade him that they were 

 from unicorns?" You may therefore be quite sure that the 



