CHAP. IX.] UNICORNS AND COCKATRICES. 283 



animals on the river that joins the western end of the 

 lake ; that there are many there quite new to the 

 Hottentots is beyond doubt, as several carosses were 

 stolen by the Kubabees and brought back south, 

 and the skins that many of these were made from 

 were quite unknown to them. The Bushmen, without 

 any leading question or previous talk upon the subject, 

 mentioned the unicorn. I cross-questioned them 

 thoroughly, but they p^isted in describing a one- 

 horned animal, something like a gemsbok in shape 

 and size, whose horn was in the middle of its fore- 

 head, and pointed forwards. The spoor of the animal 

 was, they said, like that of a zebra. The horn was in 

 shape like a gemsbok's, but shorter. They spoke of 

 the animal as though they knew of it, but were not at 

 all familiar with it. It will indeed be strange if, after 

 all, the creature has a real existence. There are 

 recent travellers in the north of tropical Africa who 

 have heard of it there, and believe in it, and there is 

 surely plenty of room to find sometliing new in the vast 

 belt of terra incognita that Ues in this continent. 



Of another fabulous monster, the cockatrice, a most 

 widely spread belief exists. The Ovampo, the 

 Bushmen of this place, and Timboo, all protested that 

 there is such a creature, and that they had often seen 

 it. They described it as a snake, sometimes twelve 

 feet long, and as thick as the arm ; slender for its 

 length, with a brilliantly variegated skin ; it has a 

 comb on the head exactly like a guinea-fowl, but red, 

 and has also wattles ; its cry is very like the noise 

 that fowls make when roosting — I do not mean crowing. 



