UNICORNS IN ABYSSINIA. W63) 
*“Hdward Webbe,” added Mr. Dartmouth, 
*‘an English traveller, who visited Abys- 
sinia in the sixteenth century, has spoken of 
Klephants and Unicorns together, and in 
great numbers, as kept in a park or mena- 
gerie, at the court of Prester John; and, 
for so doing, is reproached by Purchas as a 
*fabler.’* But if, by a Unicorn, we will but 
understand a Rhinoceros, every thing will 
disclose itself in the plainest manner possible ; 
for Abyssinia is one of the native countries 
* “T have seen,” says Webbe, “in a place like 
a parke, adjoining to Prester John’s Court, three 
score and seventeen Unicorns and Elephants, all 
alive at one time ; and they were so tame that I have 
played with them as one would play with young 
Lambes.” Purchas, for this passage, ventures to call 
Webbe “a mere fabler;” and this, not because le 
talks ef having seen Unicorns alive, not for the harm- 
lessness and playfulness which he ascribes to them 
and to the Elephants, and which he states himself 
to have seen of both, but only for the largeness of 
the number. But the number of the animals col- 
lected for the royal park, in Abyssinia, their native 
country, offers no difficulty whatever; and if, by 
“Unicorns and Elephants,” we understand Elephants 
and Rhinoceroses, Webbe is instantly relieved from 
every suspicion of fabling. 
H 
