CURIOUS CREATURES. 91 



may be gathered from the Words of Job, chap. 39, 

 ' Will the Unicorn serve thee, or will he tarry by thy 

 Crib ? Can'st thou bind the Unicorn with his Band to 

 labour in the Furrow, or will he plough the Valleys after 

 thee?'" 



Topsell dilates at great length on the Unicorn. He 

 agrees with Spenser and Guillim, and says : " These 

 Beasts are very swift, and their legges have no Articles 

 (joints}. They keep for the most part in the desarts, 

 and live solitary in the tops of the Mountaines. There 

 was nothing more horrible than the voice or braying of 

 it, for the voice is strain'd above measure. It fighteth 

 both with the mouth and with the heeles, with the mouth 

 biting like a Lyon, and with the heeles kicking like a 

 Horse. . . . He feereth not Iron nor any yron Instrument 

 (as Isodorus writeth) and that which is most strange of 

 all other, it fighteth with his owne kind, yea even with 

 the females unto death, except when it burneth in lust 

 for procreation : but unto straunger Beasts, with whome 

 he hath no affinity in nature, he is more sotiable and 

 familiar, delighting in their company when they come 

 willing unto him, never rising against them ; but, proud 

 of their dependence and retinue, keepeth with them all 

 quarters of league and truce ; but with his female, when 

 once his flesh is tickled with lust, he groweth tame, 

 gregall, and loving, and so continueth till she is filled 

 and great with young, and then returneth to his former 

 hostility." 



There was a curious legend of the Unicorn, that it 

 would, by its keen scent, find out a maiden, and run to 

 her, laying its head in her lap. This is often used as 

 an emblem of the Virgin Mary, to denote her purity. 

 The following is from the Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, 



