92 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



and, as its old French is easily read, I have not trans- 

 lated it : 



" Monoceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste, 

 Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad fac,un ; 

 Par Pucele est prise ; or vez en quel guize. 



Quant horn le volt cacer et prendre et enginner, 

 Si vent horn al forest u sis riparis est ; 

 La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele, 

 Et par odurement Monosceros la sent ; 

 Dune vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la mamele, 

 En sein devant se doit, issi veut a sa mort ; 

 Li hom suivent atant ki 1'ocit en dormant 

 U trestont vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent. 

 Grant chose signifie." . . . 



Topsell, of course, tells the story : " It is sayd that 

 Unicorns above all other creatures, doe reverence Virgines 

 and young Maides, and that many times at the sight of 

 them they grow tame, and come and sleepe beside them, 

 for there is in their nature a certaine savor, wherewithall 

 the Unicornes are allured and delighted ; for which occa- 

 sion the Indian and Ethiopian hunters use this stratagem 

 to take the beast. They take a goodly, strong, and 

 beautifull young man, whom they dresse in the Apparell 

 of a woman, besetting him with divers odoriferous flowers 

 and spices. 



" The man so adorned they set in the Mountaines 

 or Woods, where the Unicorne hunteth, so as the wind 

 may carrie the savor to the beast, and in the meane 

 season the other hunters hide themselves : the Unicorne 

 deceaved with the outward shape of a woman, and 

 sweete smells, cometh to the young man without feare, 

 and so suffereth his head to bee covered and wrapped 

 within his large sleeves, never stirring, but lying still 

 and asleepe, as in his most acceptable repose. Then, 



