322 NATURAL HISTORY. 



of Reem in connection with" the plough and harrow, for which its tameless and savage disposition 

 rendered it unfit. It is also spoken of in Isaiah in connection with sacrifice > of cattle (chap, xxxiv. 

 verses 6, 7). 



Topsel, an author of the sixteenth century, while trying to show that there lived such a creature 

 as the fabled Unicorn, and giving a picture representing it as possessing the horn of the Narwhal, 

 the body of a Horse, and the feet of an Ox, successfully shows Reem to mean neither a Unicorn 

 nor Rhinoceros, but simply an Ox. He relates : " That there is such a beast the Scripture itself 

 witnesseth, for David thus speaketh in the 92nd Psalm : Et erigetur cornu meum tanquam monocerotis 

 -that is, my home shall bee lifteth up as the home of a unicorn." He goes on to say : "We have 

 already shown, in the story of the Rhinoceros, that Re6m in Hebrew signifies a Unicorne, although 

 Munster be of another opinion ; yet the Septuagints, in the translation of Deut. xxxiii., do translate it a 

 Unicorne, for the Rhinoceros hath not one home but two. Rabbi Solomon, David Kimchi, and Saadius 

 do always take Reem and Karas for a Unicorne, and they derive Reem from Rom, which s-ignifieth 

 Altitudinem, height, because the home of the Unicorn is lifted up upon high. Hereunto the Arabians 

 agree, which call it Barkeron, and the Persians Bark ; the Chaldeans, Remana. In the 39th chapter of 

 Job the Lord speaketh in this manner to Job : ' Will the Unicorne rest and serve thee, or tarry 

 beside thy cratches 1 Canst thou bind the Unicorne with a halter to thy plough to make furrows 1 or 

 will he make plaine the clots of the valleys V . . . Whereby God Himself must needs be traduced 

 if there be no Unicorne in the world." We may therefore conclude that Reem was one of the 

 Oxen wild in those times in Palestine. It, probably, was the great wild Ox, or Urus, which formerly 

 abounded in the forests of Macedonia, and was hunted in the forests of Germany as late as the tenth 

 century after Christ. 



The Rhinoceros was first seen at Rome, according to Pliny, in the games given by Pompey to the 

 Roman people. He describes it as being possessed of one horn on its nose, which it sharpens on a 

 stone before it fights, and that when it fights with the Elephant it attempts to rip its belly open. The 

 earliest time the animal was mentioned by name was by Agatharchides, who describes it as fighting 

 in the manner above alluded to. In both these instances it is evident that the one-horned Asiatic 

 species is meant. The African Rhinoceros, according to Dion Cassius, was for the first time brought 

 before the notice of the Romans in B.C. 39, in the games given by Augustus to celebrate his victory 

 over Cleopatra. It was exhibited along with a Hippopotamus, and both animals were in all likeli- 

 hood obtained from the Upper Nile. 



Probably the first Rhinoceros ever seen by modern Europeans was a one-horned species, the 

 E. unicornis, sent from India to Emanuel, King of Portugal, in 1513. A sketch was sent from Lisbon 

 to Niirnberg, and a most extraordinary engraving was made by Albert Dtirer, from which Gesner, 

 Topsel, &c., took copies. This animal was made to appear in a wonderful suit of armour beautifully 

 decorated, and supplied with a second horn on the shoulders, resembling the point of that of the 

 Narwhal. Topsel's description of the Rhinoceros is most ludicrous " First of all, that there is such a 

 beast in the world both Pliny, Solinus, Diodorus, ^Elianus, Lampridius, and others, doe yeald ere- 

 frigable testimony." He then goes on to say : " The picture here expressed was taken by Gesner from 

 the beast alive at Lisbon, in Portugale. . . . Eucherius saith that the Rhinoceros hath two homes 

 in his nose, but that is utterly false, as you may see by the picture. . . . The Rhinoceros cast up 

 a Beare into the aire even as ti Bull would do a ball which were laid upon his two homes ; we shall not 

 neede to apply Gemino cornu to the Bull, as Politianus doth, but rather take it figuratively for a strong 

 home, and if it must needs be litterall, it is apparent by the picture that there is another little home, 

 not upon the nose, but upon the wither of the beast. . . . When they are to fight they whet 

 their home upon a stone ; and there is not only a discord betwixt these beasts and Elephants for 

 their food, but a naturall description and enmity : for it is confidently affirmed that when the 

 Rhinoceros which was at Lisbone was brought into the presence of an Elephant, the Elephant 

 ran away from him. . . Hee (the Rhinoceros) is taken by the same means that the Unicorn 

 is taken, for it is said by Albertus, Isidorus, and Alumnus, that above all other creatures they 

 love virgins, and that unto them they will come, be they never so wilde, and fall asleep before 

 them, so being asleep they are easily taken and carried away." Topsel then goes on to inform 

 us that " all the later physicians attribute the virtue of the Unicorn's home to the Rhinoceros's 



