300 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



thick horn in the middle of the forehead, and he continues: 

 " 'Tis a passing ugly beast to look upon, and is not in the 

 least like that which our stories tell of as being caught in the 

 lap of a virgin, in fact, it is altogether different from what we 

 fancied."* The learned editor of Marco Polo, Col. Henry 

 Yule, draws attention to the fact that the rhinoceros horn 

 and the tusk of the narwhal were confused at a very early 

 date, for iElian, while giving for the unicorns a native name 

 which appears to designate the rhinoceros, describes the horn 

 as not straight but twisted, as is the tusk of the narwhal. f 



A Latin work written between 1230 and 1244 by Thomas 

 de Cantimpre (born 1201 at Leuwis near Brussels), a pupil 

 of the famous Albertus Magnus, gives some curious par- 

 ticulars illustrating the ideas prevailing at that period 

 regarding the whale, which was evidently confused to a 

 certain extent with the narwhal. The Latin original of 

 the book has never been printed, but there is an old Ger- 

 man version by Konrad von Megenberg (born 1309) which 

 faithfully renders the text; this runs in part as follows: J 



*' Cete [cetis] is a whale. This is the largest of all fishes, 

 as Isidorus says. When young it has black teeth, which 

 become white with age, and it has a bone or horn on the 

 forehead. Some whales are so big that when seen from 

 afar they seem like islands or groves, or resemble great 

 hills. The whale heaps a thick coating of earth upon its 

 back, so that when seamen are driven by stress of weather 

 upon this earth, they imagine it to be an island and that 

 they have come to land. Rejoiced at this they let down the 

 sails, drop their anchor in the water, build a fire upon the 

 earth and seek to enjoy a little rest. As soon, however, 



*"The Book of Ser Marco Folo," trans, and ed. by Col. Henry Yule, id ed. London, 1875. 

 Vol. II, pp. 89, 265, 266. 



tibid., p. 273. 



t"Das buch der Natur von Konrad von Megenberg," ed. by Dr. Franz Pfeiffer, Stutt- 

 gart, 1861, p. 247. 



