joo CURIOUS CREATURES. 



stone, and there is not only a discord between these 

 beasts and Elephants for their food, but a natural de- 

 scription and enmity : for it is confidently affirmed, that 

 when the Rhinoceros which was at Lisborne, was brought 

 into the presence of an Elephant, the Elephant ran away 

 from him. How and what place he overcometh the 

 Elephant, we have shewed already in his story, namely, 

 how he fastneth his home in the soft part of the 

 Elephantes belly. He is taken by the same meanes that 

 the Unicorne is taken, for it is said by Albertus, Isodorus, 

 and Alumnus, that above all other creatures they love 

 Virgins, and that unto them they will come be they 

 never so wilde, and fall a sleepe before them, so being 

 asleepe they are easily taken, and carried away. All the 

 later Physitians do attribute the vertue of the Unicorn's 

 home to the Rhinocereos horn." 



Ser Marco Polo, speaking of Sumatra, or, as he called 

 it, Java the Less, says in that island there are numerous 

 unicorns. " They have hair like that of a buffalo, feet 

 like those of an elephant, and a horn in the middle of the 

 forehead, which is black and very thick. They do no 

 mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue 

 alone ; for this is covered all over with long and strong 

 prickles, (and when savage with any one they crush him 

 under their knees, and then rasp him with their tongue). 

 The head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry 

 it ever bent towards the ground. They delight much 

 to abide in mire and mud. 'Tis a passing ugly beast to 

 look upon, and is not in the least like that which our 

 stories tell us of as being caught in the lap of a virgin ; 

 in fact, 'tis altogether different from what we fancied." 



