HORNS AND TUSKS 299 



drink from these cups wine, water, or anything else." The 

 animals themselves are described by Ctesias as "wild asses 

 as large as horses." The head was of a dark red colour, the 

 eyes blue, and the rest of the body white. The single horn 

 projected from the forehead and was about one cubit in 

 length; it was pure white until toward the middle, where it 

 became black, and finally tapered off to a sharp point which 

 was of a flaming crimson. Whether this account is purely 

 fantastic or may have been based upon the observation of 

 some artificially coloured horns is not easy to determine. 

 It has been conjectured by some that Ctesias was influenced 

 in his account of the unicorn by the appearance of certain 

 Persian sculptures where an ibex is shown with apparently a 

 single horn, although this merely signifies that the artist 

 figured the animal in profile, where one horn was directly 

 behind the other, and hence not visible. 

 , However, the details given by this writer as to the method 

 of hunting the unicorns and the definite character of his 

 statements, in spite of certain obvious errors and exaggera- 

 tions, make it more probable that the animal in question 

 was really the rhinoceros. Of the hunting he says: "These 

 animals can only be caught . . . when they lead their 

 little foals to the pastures in which they roam. They are 

 then hounded in on all sides by a vast number of hunters 

 mounted on horseback, and being unwilling to escape while 

 leaving their young to perish, stand their ground and fight, 

 and by butting with their horns and knocking and biting, 

 kill many horses and men. But they are in the end taken 

 pierced to death with arrows and spears, for to take them 

 alive is in no way possible."* 



Marco Polo's unicorns were unquestionably rhinoceroses. 

 He saw, or heard of them, in Burma and Sumatra, and says 

 they were really as big as elephants, with a black and very 



♦Ibid., p. 27. 



