50 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
while Seneca gives the figure at 500, and 
Albertus at 350 years. Pliny also tells us 
that the phoenix was regarded in Arabia as 
sacred to the sun. When it grows old it 
constructs a nest composed of cinnamon and 
thyme, filling it with scented herbs, and so 
soon as this is completed the giant bird reposes 
upon it and dies. We are further told that a 
creature like a worm arises from its bones and 
marrow, from which, in turn, comes a fowl. 
This, as its first act, performs the funeral rites 
of the worm, after which it flies off with 
the nest to near Panchaja, a city of the 
sun, where it places its burden upon the 
altar. 
Ovid says that its tears are of incense 
and its blood of balsam, while another nar¬ 
rator tells us that when the bird felt its 
span of life was drawing to a close it flew 
up into the air to such a great height that 
the heat from the sun burnt its body to 
ashes. 
Although the unicorn is familiar to everyone 
on account of its association with the Royal 
Coat-of-Arms, yet according to the ancients 
it was once a living creature that had the 
misfortune to perish in the great flood. 
Described as a four-footed and untamable 
animal, about the size of a horse, and pos- 
