"'There shall be no fault held if elephants die by reason of their having been encoiled in the folds of a Nyan.' "'There shall be no fault held if horses die by reason of their having been sucked by bilas.' "The Poetical Version of the _Pokinnaka Dhammathat_, which is a compilation of several Dhammathats, in the same strain, says:-- [Here follows a verse, the same in effect as the above.] "From such passages it will be seen that there is a frightful monster of extraordinary strength, which is capable of capturing even such animals as elephants." "In the form of oath of fealty administered by successive kings to their feudatories and vassals, the following imprecation is to be found:-- "'May I die through being seized by alligators and Nyans.'" [Here follows an explanatory note respecting the four species of danger to be found in the ocean.] "In the reign of King Alaung-mindara-gyé, the founder of the city of Ratana Singha--when he went on an expedition against Ayudhara or Yodhaya (Siam) and was crossing the Martaban river, he lost some two or three elephants, which were destroyed as soon as they had entered the water. The King ascertained from the lower country inhabitants that they had been captured and bitten by the creature Nyan. Two or three elephants were similarly lost in Ava, when it was also ascertained that they had been captured by the Nyan. There goes a saying that the Nyan is some one to two hundred fathoms long. The form of oath of fealty contains an imprecation in which the Nyan is to fulfil a part. And there are writings which make mention of its existence." CHAPTER X. THE UNICORN. A belief in the unicorn, like that in the dragon, appears to have obtained among both Eastern and Western authors, at a very early period. In this case, however, it has survived the revulsion from a fatuous confidence in the fables and concocted specimens of the Middle Ages, and even now the existence or non-existence of this remarkable animal remains a debateable question. Until within a late period occasional correspondents of the South African journals continued to assert its existence, basing their communications on the reports of hunters from the interior, while but a few hundred years since travellers spoke of actually seeing it or of passing through countries in which its existence was absolutely affirmed to them. Horns, generally those of the narwhal, but occasionally of one species of rhinoceros, were brought home and deposited in museums as those of the veritable unicorn, or sold, under the same pretext, for large sums, on account of their reputed valuable medicinal properties.[281] The animal is variously described as resembling a horse or some kind of deer; this description may possibly refer to some animal of a type intermediate to them, now almost, if not quite, extinct. In some instances it is supposed that a species of rhinoceros is indicated.