THE ROMANCE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



spoken of in Kordofan, where it is called Xillekma, 

 and sometimes Artist*-- that is, unicorn. Mr. Free- 

 man, the excellent missionary whose name is so 

 intimately connected with Madagascar, received 

 the most particular accounts of the creature from 

 an intelligent native of a region lying northward 

 from Mozambique. According to this witness, an 

 animal called the Ndzoodzoo is by no means rare 

 in Makooa. It is about the size of a horse, ex- 

 tremely fleet and strong. A single horn projects 

 from its forehead from two feet to two and a-half 

 feet in length. This is said to be flexible when the 

 animal is asleep, and can be curled up at pleasure, 

 like an elephant's proboscis ; but it becomes stiff 

 and hard under the excitement of rage. It is ex- 

 tremely fierce, invariably attacking a man when- 

 ever it discerns him. The device adopted by the 

 natives to escape from its fury, is to climb a thick 

 and tall tree out of sight. If the enraged animal 

 ceases to see his enemy, he presently gallops 

 away ; but, if he catches sight of the fugitive in 

 a tree, he instantly commences an attack on the 

 tree with his frontal horn, boring and ripping it 

 till he brings it down, when the wretched man is 

 presently gored to death. If the tree is not very 

 bulky, the perseverance of the creature usually 

 succeeds in overturning it. His fury spends itself 

 in goring and mangling the carcase, as he never 

 attempts to devour it. The female is altogether 

 without a horn.* 



When in the neighbourhood of the tropic, Dr. 

 Smith himself reports of a similar creature inhab- 

 iting the country north of that parallel. The per- 

 sons who professed to be personally familiar with 

 it, as well as a new kind of rhinoceros allied to 

 It Keitloa, were only visitors in the country it 

 * South Afr. Christian Recorder, vol. i. 

 270 



