HORNS AND TUSKS 301 



as the whale feels the heat of the fire, it becomes enraged 

 and dives beneath the water, bearing down to the depths 

 both ship and sailors. Although it is the biggest of all 

 fishes, the whale has a small gullet, and hence only devours 

 the little fish. These he entices to him by the sweet odour 

 of the breath which comes from his mouth, and then swal- 

 lows them down." 



The Italian traveller, Ludovico Barthema, claims to have 

 seen two live unicorns in Mecca, when he visited that city 

 at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and gives a most 

 conscientious description of their appearance. The body 

 of the elder of the two animals resembled that of a colt 

 thirty months old and had a horn "three braccia"' in length 

 (about 6 ft.) projecting from its forehead; the horn of the 

 younger animal, about the size of a yearling colt, was about 

 16 in. long. Both animals were of dark-bay colour, and 

 their heads were like those of stags; the neck was not very 

 long and some short hair hung down on one side. The legs 

 and the slightly cloven feet were like those of the goat. 

 These "very remarkable objects," as Barthema truly char- 

 acterizes them, had been given to the Sultan of Mecca by 

 "a King of Ethiopia, that is by a Moorish King, as the finest 

 things that could be found in the world at the present day. "* 



The two forms of ivory derived respectively from the 

 walrus and the narwhal appear to have been well known to 

 the Chinese at an early period. f The first direct evidence of 

 this is to be found in the Sung mo hi wen, "Historical Mem- 

 oranda Regarding the Kin Dynasty," the work of Hung 

 Hao (1090-1155 A. D.), where this ivory is designated by 



*"The Travels of Ludovico di Varthema," tr. by G. P. Badger, London, 1863, p. 46; 

 Hakluyt Soc. pub.. Vol. XXXII. 



tFor the details in this and the succeeding paragraphs we are indebted to the valuable 

 paper by Dr. Berthold Laufer, entitled: "Arabic and Chinese Trade in Walrus and Nar- 

 whal Ivory," Oriental Printing Office, Leyden, 1913, 58 pp. A reprint from the T'oung 

 Pao, Vol. XIV. 



