Chap. 32.] 
ANIMALS OF ^ETHIOPIA. 
281 
like that of a fawn, but with numerous spots on it, and whiter f"^ 
this animal is looked upon as sacred to Bacchus. The Orsaean 
Indians hunt down a kind of ape, which has the body white all 
over ; as well as a yery fierce animal called the monoceros/^ 
which has the head of the stag, the feet of the elephant, and 
the tail of the boar, while the rest of the body is like that of the 
horse ; it makes a deep lowing noise, and has a single black 
horn, which projects from the middle of its forehead, two 
cubits in length.^^ This animal, it is said, cannot be taken 
alive. 
CHAP. 32. THE ANIMALS OF ETHIOPIA ; A WILD BEAST WHICH 
KILLS WITH ITS EYE. 
Among the Hesperian ^Ethiopians is the fountain of Mgris, by 
many, supposed to be the head of the Mle. I have already men - 
tioned the arguments by which this opinion is supported.^^ i^ear 
this fountain, there is found a wild beast, which is called the 
catoblepas an animal of moderate size, and in other respects 
sluggish in the movement of the rest of its limbs ; its head 
is remarkably heavy, and it only carries it with the greatest 
difficulty, being always bent down towards the earth. Were 
it not for this circumstance, it would prove the destruction of 
55 Probably the stag of the Ganges, the " Cervus axis" of Linnseus ; but 
if so, Pliny has omitted to mention the horns. — B. 
56 "White apes are now unknown, as a distinct species, but individuals 
are occasionally found nearly without colour. — E. 
57 The " one-horned," or the unicorn. 
58 We have a discussion by Cuvier, respecting the existence of the uni- 
corn, or of any animal similar to that here described, with a single horn. 
He remarks, that the only single-horned quadruped of which we have any 
certain knowledge, is the rhinoceros, and that the only horns which have 
been discovered, and which can have been single horns, belong to it. There 
are five animals mentioned by the ancients, as having single horns, the In- 
dian ass, the single-horned horse, the single-horned ox, the monoceros, 
described in the text, and the oryx of Africa, which Pliny speaks of in c. 
79 of this Book, and in B. xi. c. 106. There are many curious accounts 
given by travellers of acknowledged veracity, respecting animals seen in 
the more remote parts of Asia and Africa, answering to the description of 
the unicorn, and there are representations of the same in ancient sculptures ; 
but they do not amount to that kind of evidence which can at all supply 
the place of direct proof. — B. 
59 These will be found in B. v. c. 10. 
^ From Kara/3Xg7rw, " to look downwards." 
