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| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
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CHAP. IX.
THE UNICORN
291
inveigled and blindfolded by a stout young knave, disguised as a maiden and drenched with scent :--
"'Tis then the huntsmen hasten up, abandoning their ambush ; Clean from his head they chop his horn, prized antidote to poison ;
And let the docked and luckless beast escape into the jungles."
—V. 399, segq.
In the cut which we give of this from a medieval source the horn of the unicorn is evidently the tusk of a narwhal. This confusion arose very early, as may be seen from its occurrence in Aelian, who says that the horn of the unicorn or Kartazōnon (the Arab Karkaddan or Rhinoceros) was not straight but twisted (Atli/Las eXov TLPct, Hist. An. xvi. 2o). The mistake may also be traced in the illustrations to Cosmas' Indicopleustes from his own drawings, and it long endured, as may be seen in Jerome Cardan's description of a unicorn's horn which he saw suspended in the church of St. Denis ; as well as in a circumstance related by P. della Valle (II. 491 ; and Cardan, de Varietate, c. xcvii. ). Indeed the supporter of the Royal arms retains the narwhal horn. To this popular error is no doubt due the reading in Pauthier's text, which makes the horn white instead of black.
•
We may quote the following quaint version of the fable from the, Bestiary of Philip de Thaun, published by Mr. Wright (Popular Treatises on Science, etc. p. Si):
` ` Monosceros est Beste, un corne ad en la teste,
Purceo ad si a nun, de buc ad façun ;
Par Pucele est prise ; or vez en quel guise.
Quant hom le volt cacer et prendre et enginner,
Si vent hom al forest ù sis riparis est ;
La met une Pucele hors de sein sa mamele,
Et par odurement Monosceros la sent ;
Dune vent a la Pucele, et si baiset la-mamele,
En sein devant se dort, issi vent à sa mort
Li hom suivent atant ki l'ocit en dormant
U trestout vif le prent, si fais puis sun talent.
Grant chose signifie." . .
And so goes on to moralise the fable.
sra
NOTE 6.—In the J. Indian zlrcliip. V. 285, there is mention of the Falco lllalaiensis, black, with a double white-and-brown spotted tail, said to belong to the ospreys, " but does not disdain to take birds and other game."
* Another mediæval illustration of the subject is given in Les Arts au Moyen Age, p. 499, from the binding of a book. It is allegorical. and the Maiden is there the Virgin Mary.
VOL. I.
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