The Rev. John Campbell, in his "Travels in South Africa," describes the
head of another animal, which, as far as the horn is concerned, seems
to approach nearer than the common rhinoceros to the Unicorn of the
ancients. While in the Machow territory, the Hottentots brought to Mr.
Campbell a head differing from that of any rhinoceros that had been
previously killed. "The common African rhinoceros has a crooked horn,
resembling a cock's spur, which rises about nine or ten inches above
the nose, and inclines backward; immediately behind which is a straight
thick horn. But the head brought by the Hottentots had a straight horn
projecting three feet from the forehead, about ten inches above the tip
of the nose. The projection of this great horn very much resembles that
of the fanciful Unicorn in the British arms. It has a small thick horny
substance, eight inches long, immediately behind it, which can hardly
be observed on the animal at the distance of a hundred yards; so that
this species must look like an Unicorn (in the sense 'one-horned') when
running in the field." The author adds:--"This animal is considered
by naturalists, since the arrival of the above skull in London, to be
the Unicorn of the ancients, and the same that is described in Job
xxxix. 9--'Will the Unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy
crib? 10. Canst thou bind the Unicorn with his band in the furrow? or
will he harrow the valleys after thee? 11. Wilt thou trust him because
his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?' Again,
Deuteronomy xxxiii. 17--'His horns are like the horns of Unicorns: with
them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth.'"
A fragment of the skull, with the horn, is deposited in the Museum of
the London Missionary Society.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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