2. The Histoire Naturelle de l’Universe gives an Account of several Persons who have described the Unicorn; and particularly Father Lobos, in his Voyage to the Abyssine Empire, says, that this Animal is of the Shape and Size of a fine-made and well-proportion’d Horse, of a bay Colour with a black Tail and Extremities; he adds, that the Unicorns of Tuacua have very short Tails; and those of Ninina (a Canton in the same Province) have theirs very long, and their Manes hanging over their Heads. Vol. IV. Page 3.
3. Du Mont says, he saw the Head of a Dragon which was set up over the Water-Gate in the City of Rhodes; this Dragon was 33 Feet long, and wasted all the Country round, ’till it was slain by Deodate de Gozon, a Knight of St. John. He says, the Head was like that of an Hog, but much larger; its Ears were like a Mule’s, but cut off; the Teeth were extraordinary sharp and long; the Throat wide; its Eyes hollow, and burning like two Coals. It had two little Wings on its Back; its Legs and Tail like those of a Lizard, but strong, and arm’d with sharp and venomous Talons. His Body was cover’d with Scales which was Proof against Arms. See the Manner of his being kill’d in the Atlas Geographicus, Vol. III. Page 43, 44.
4. Ludolphus, in his Ethiophic History, tells us, that in the Abyssine Empire, there are voracious scaly Dragons of the largest Size, tho’ not venomous or hurtful otherwise than by the Bite, and they look like the Bark of an old Tree. Atlas Geographicus, Vol. IV. Page 614.
5. The Stories of Mer-maids, Satyrs, &c. had undoubtedly their Original from such Animals as have in some Respects a Likeness to the human Shape and Features. Among these the Monkey Kind, the Orang-Outang, and the Quoja Morron are the chief on Land; and the Fish call’d the Mermaid (tho’ it has nothing of the Human Form) and some other unusual Animals in the Sea.”
Q.
Where several sons are contemporaneous, and all have the right to bear the paternal arms, they are thus distinguished—the eldest son adds to them what is known as a label; the second, a crescent; the third, a five-pointed star; the fourth, a martlet; the fifth, an annulet; the sixth, a fleur-de-lys; the seventh, a rose; and so on. A very good and easily accessible example of this “differencing” of the arms may be seen in those borne by the Prince of Wales, the silver label stretching across the top of the shield, blazoned in all other respects like those of the Queen, marking the relationship.
R.
Bruce tells us, for instance, that the horned viper, or Cerastes, the “worm of Nile” that was the cause of the death of Cleopatra, has a way of creeping until it is alongside its victim, and then making a sudden sidelong spring at the object of its attack. In his book he narrates a curious instance that came under his notice at Cairo, where several of these reptiles had been placed in a box. “I saw one crawl up the side, and there lie still, as if hiding himself, till one of the people who brought them to us came near him and though in a very disadvantageous position, sticking as it were perpendicularly to the side of the box, he leaped near the distance of three feet, and fastened between the man’s forefinger and thumb.”