94 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



Topsell, from whom I have quoted so much, is 

 especially voluminous and erudite on Unicorns ; indeed, 

 in no other old or new author whom I have consulted 

 are there so many facts (?) respecting this fabled beast 

 to be found. Here is his history of those horns then 

 to be found in Europe : 



" There are two of these at Venice in the Treasurie 

 of S. Markes Church, as Brasavolus writeth, one at 

 Argentoratum, which is wreathed about with divers 

 sphires. 1 There are also two in the Treasurie of the 

 King of Polonia, all of them as long as a man in his 

 stature. In the yeare 1520, there was found the home 

 of a Unicorne in the river Arrula, neare Bruga in 

 Helvetia, the upper face or out side whereof was a darke 

 yellow ; it was two cubites (3 feet) in length, but had 

 upon it no plights 2 or wreathing versuus. It was very 

 odoriferous (especially when any part of it was set on 

 fire), so that it smelt like muske : as soone as it was 

 found, it was carried to a Nunnery called Campus regius, 

 but, afterwards by the Governor of Helvetia, it was 

 recovered back againe, because it was found within his 

 teritorie. . . . 



"Another certaine friend of mine, being a man worthy 

 to be beleeved, declared unto me that he saw at Paris, 

 with the Chancellor, being Lord of Pratus, a peece of a 

 Unicorn's horn, to the quantity of. a cubit, wreathed in 

 tops or spires, about the thicknesse of an indifferent 

 staflfe (the compasse therof extending to the quantity 

 of six fingers) being within, and without, of a muddy 

 colour, with a solide substance, the fragments whereof 

 would boile in the Wine although they were never 

 burned, having very little or no smell at all therein. 



1 Spirals. 2 Plaits. 



