4 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. I. 



dent and revered teacher, Hunter, whatever fossil 

 remains might fall in his way.' 



Owen was evidently regarded more or less, 

 all through his life, as legitimate prey to the 

 numerous inquirers as to the nature and habits of 

 such monsters as the cockatrice, the phoenix, and 

 the bunyip (this last monster being an imaginary 

 creature which hailed from Australia, whose skull 

 turned out to be merely that of an embryo sheep). 

 He has left a description of his interview with an 

 Oriental personage who had come to inquire 

 about the phoenix. 



On April 1 5 he writes : ' A grave Oriental 

 with his interpreter were ushered into my study, 

 as I was preparing my lecture. After due salaams 

 and the visitors seated, the interpreter stated that 

 they were from the Turkish Embassy in order to 

 ask my opinion of the phoenix ; whether I believed 

 there had ever been such a bird, and what was 

 the last scientific intelligence regarding it. Of 

 course I told them nothing was known beyond old 

 tradition. The Turk then took from an inner 

 recess of his vest a crimson velvet case, which 

 contained a most beautiful ladle, the handle of 

 carved coral and gold, jewelled, the bowl of a kind 

 of fine horny material, half rose colour and half 

 cream colour, united at an angle. This, with a few 

 similar ladles, had been in the Sultan's jewel-house 

 for many centuries, and was held to be made — the 

 bowl — out of the beak of the phoenix. My opinion 



