SOUTHERN AFRICA. 271 
of fancy, is unquestionably true ; but it does not follow from 
thence that a quadruped with one horn, growing out of the 
middle of the forehead, should not exist. The arguments, 
indeed, that might be offered are much stronger for its exist- 
ence than the objections are against it. It is doubtful from 
whence the idea of this animal, as painted in Europe, has 
been taken, but if from that which is described in Holy Writ, 
the painter, in the representation he has given of the Unicorn 
as a supporter of the Royal Arms, has not, by any means, 
entered into the spirit of the description. The animal, to 
which the writer of the Book of Job, who was no mean na- 
tural historian, puts into the mouth of the Almighty a poetical 
allusion, has been supposed, indeed, with great plausibility, 
to be the one-horned rhinosceros : " Canst thou bind the 
*' unicorn with his band in the furrow ? or will he harrow the 
" vallies after thee ? Wilt thou trust him because his strength 
" is great, or wilt thou leave thy labor to him t" Moses alfo 
in all probability meant the rhinosceros when he mentions the 
unicorn as having the strength of God. Aristotle had a very 
different idea of the animal, to which he gives the name of 
unicorn, for he describes it as a species of wild ass with solid- 
ungulous feet. 
The African rhinosceros, having invariably two horns, can- 
not be supposed to be the prototype of the Bosjesmans' 
paintings of the unicorn. Besides, the former frequently 
occurs among their productions, and is represented as the 
thick short-legged figure that it really is, whilst the latter is 
said by the boors to be uniformly described as a folidungulous 
animal resembling the horse, with an elegantly shaped body, 
