CHAP. 31.—THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS OF INDIA.
There are in India oxen also with solid hoofs[1] and a
single horn;[2] and a wild beast called the axis, which has a skin
like that of a fawn, but with numerous spots on it, and whiter;[3]
this animal is looked upon as sacred to Bacchus. The Orsæan
Indians hunt down a kind of ape, which has the body white[4] all
over; as well as a very fierce animal called the monoceros,[5]
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.[6] This animal, it is said, cannot be taken
alive.
1. Probably meaning, "not cloven."
2. Cuvier conjectures, that this is from Ctesias, and says, that a similar
animal is to be seen on one of the sculptures of Persepolis.—B.
3. Probably the stag of the Ganges, the "Cervus axis" of Linnæus; but
if so, Pliny has omitted to mention the horns.—B.
4. White apes are now unknown, as a distinct species, but individuals
are occasionally found nearly without colour.—B.
5. The "one-horned," or the unicorn.
6. We have a discussion by Cuvier, respecting the existence of the unicorn, 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 Indian 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.