Unicorn

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UNICORN (re’çm, Num_23:22 etc.; rçm, Job_39:9; RV [Note: Revised Version.] in all passages ‘wild ox’).—This is undoubtedly the rîmu of the Assyrians, often figured on their sculptures. A fine bas-relief of this animal was uncovered recently by the excavations of Nineveh. It is probably identical with the aurochs or Bos primigenius, the urus of Julius Cæsar. It was of great size and strength (Num_23:22; Num_24:8, Psa_22:21), very wild and ferocious (Job_39:9-12), and specially dangerous when hunted, because of its powerful double horns (Psa_92:10, Deu_33:17). In connexion with Isa_34:7 it is interesting to note the inscription of Shalmaneser II., who says, ‘His land I trod down like a rîmu.’ The Arab. [Note: Arabic.] ri’m, the graceful Antilope leucoryx of Arabia, is a very different animal.
E. W. G. Masterman.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

reem. In Deu_33:17, "his (Joseph's) horns are like the horns of an unicorn" (so margin rightly, not "unicorns"); "the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh," two tribes sprung from the one Joseph, are the two horns from one head. Therefore the unicorn was not as is represented a one-horned animal, but some species of urns or wild ox. The rhinoceros does not "skip" as the young unicorn is represented to do (Psa_29:6). The unicorn's characteristics are:
(1) great strength, Num_23:22; Job_39:11;
(2) two horns, Deu_33:17;
(3) fierceness, Psa_22:21;
(4) untameableness, Job_39:9-11, where the unicorn, probably the wild bison, buffalo, ox, or urus (now only found in Lithuania, but then spread over northern temperate climes, Bashan, etc., and in the Hercynian forest, described by Caesar as almost the size of an elephant, fierce, sparing neither man nor beast) stands in contrast to the tame ox used in plowing, Job_39:11-12;
(5) playfulness of its young, Psa_29:6;
(6) association with "bullocks and bulls" for sacrifice, Isa_34:6-7;
(7) lifting up the horn, Psa_92:10, as bovine animals lower the head and toss up the horn.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

Unicorn. The rendering of the Authorized Version of the Hebrew reem, a word which occurs seven times in the Old Testament as the name of some large wild animal. The reem of the Hebrew Bible, however, has nothing at all to do with the one-horned animal of the Greek and Roman writers, as is evident from Deu_33:17 where, in the blessing of Joseph, it is said; "his glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn;" not, as the text of the Authorized Version renders it, "the horns of unicorns."
The two horns of the ram are "the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh." This text puts a one-horned animal entirely out of the question. Considering that the reem is spoken of as a two-horned animal of great strength and ferocity, that it was evidently well known and often seen by the Jews, that it is mentioned as an animal fit for sacrificial purposes, and that it is frequently associated with bulls and oxen, we think there can be no doubt that, some species of wild ox is intended.
The allusion in Psa_92:10, "But thou shalt lift up, as a reeym, my horn," seems to point to the mode in which the Bovidae use their horns, lowering the head and then tossing it up. But it is impossible to determine what particular species of wild ox is signified probably some gigantic urus is intended.
(It is probable that it was the gigantic Bos primigeniua, or aurochs, now extinct, but of which Caesar says, "These uri are scarcely less than elephants in size, but in their nature, color and form are bulls. Great is their strength and great their speed; they spare neither man nor beast when once; they have caught sight of them" ? Bell. Gall. Vi. 20. ? Editor).
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

ראם , Num_23:22; Num_24:8; Deu_33:17; Job_39:9-10; Psa_22:21; Psa_29:6; Psa_92:10; Isa_34:7. In each of these places it is rendered in the Septuagint μονοκερως, except in Isaiah, where it is αδροι, the great or mighty ones. Barrow, in his “Travels in Southern Africa,” has given a drawing of the head of the unicorn, “a beast with a single horn projecting from the forehead;” accompanied with such details as, he thinks, offer strong arguments for the existence of such animals in the country of the Bosjesmans. He observes that this creature is represented as a “solid-ungulous animal resembling a horse, with an elegantly shaped body, marked from the shoulders to the flanks with longitudinal stripes or bands.” Still he acknowledges that the animal to which the writer of the book of Job, who was no mean natural historian, makes a poetical allusion, has been supposed, with great plausibility, to be the one-horned rhinoceros; and that Moses also very probably meant the rhinoceros, when he mentions the unicorn as having the strength of God.
“There are two animals,” says Bruce, “named frequently in Scripture, without naturalists being agreed what they are. The one is the behemoth, the other the reem; both mentioned as types of strength, courage, and independence on man; and, as such, exempted from the ordinary lot of beasts, to be subdued by him, or reduced under his dominion. The behemoth, then, I take to be the elephant; his history is well known, and my only business is with the reem, which I suppose to be the rhinoceros. The derivation of this word, both in the Hebrew and Ethiopic, seems to be from erectness, or standing straight. This is certainly no particular quality in the animal itself, which is not more, nor even so much erect as many other quadrupeds, for its knees are rather crooked; but it is from the circumstance and manner in which his horn is placed. The horns of all other animals are inclined to some degree of parallelism with the nose, or os frontis, [front bone.] The horn of the rhinoceros alone is erect and perpendicular to this bone, on which it stands at right angles; thereby possessing a greater purchase of power, as a lever, than any horn could possibly have in any other position. This situation of the horn is very happily alluded to in the sacred writings: ‘My horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a reem,' Psa_92:10. And the horn here alluded to is not wholly figurative, but was really an ornament worn by great men in the days of victory, preferment, or rejoicing, when they were anointed with new, sweet, or fresh oil; a circumstance which David joins with that of erecting the horn. Balaam, a priest of Midian, and so in the neighbourhood of the haunts of the rhinoceros, and intimately connected with Ethiopia, for they themselves were shepherds of that country, in a transport, from contemplating the strength of Israel, whom he was brought to curse, says, that they had as it were the strength of the reem, Num_23:22.
Job_39:9-10, makes frequent allusion to his great strength, ferocity, and indocility. Isa_34:7, who of all the prophets seems to have known Egypt and Ethiopia the best, when prophesying about the destruction of Idumea, says, that the reem shall come down with the fat cattle: a proof that he knew his habitation was in the neighbourhood. In the same manner as when foretelling the desolation of Egypt, he mentions, as one manner of effecting it, the bringing down the fly from Ethiopia, Isa_7:18-19, to meet the cattle in the desert and among the bushes, and destroy them there, where that insect did not ordinarily come but on command, Exo_8:22, and where the cattle fled every year, to save themselves from that insect.
“The rhinoceros in Geez is called arwe harish, and in the Amharic auraris, both which names signify the large wild beast with the horn. This would seem as if applied to the species that had but one horn. The Ethiopic text renders the word reem, arwe harish, and this the Septuagint translates μονοκερως, or unicorn. If the Abyssinian rhinoceros had invariably two horns, it seems to me improbable the Septuagint would call him μονοκερως, especially
as they must have seen an animal of this kind exposed at Alexandria
in their time, when first mentioned in history, at an exhibition given to Ptolemy Philadelphus, at his accession to the crown, before the death of his father. The principal reason for translating the word reem unicorn, and not rhinoceros, is from a prejudice that he must have but one horn. But this is by no means so well founded, as to be admitted as the only argument for establishing the existence of
an animal, which never has appeared after the search of so many ages. Scripture speaks of the horns of the unicorn,
Deu_33:17; Psa_22:21; so that even from this circumstance the reem may be the rhinoceros as the rhinoceros may be the unicorn.”
In the book of Job_39:9-10, the reem is represented as an unmanageable animal, which, although possessed of sufficient strength to labour, sternly and pertinaciously refused to bend his neck to the yoke.
Will the reem submit to serve thee? Will he, indeed, abide at thy crib?
Canst thou make his harness bind the reem to the furrow?
Will he, forsooth, plough up the valleys for thee?
Wilt thou rely on him for his great strength, And commit thy labour unto him?
Wilt thou trust him that he may bring home thy grain, And gather in thy harvest?
The rhinoceros, in size, is only exceeded by the elephant; and in strength and power is inferior to no other creature. He is at least twelve feet in length, from the extremity of the snout to the insertion of the tail; six or seven feet in height, and the circumference of the body is nearly equal to its length. He is particularly distinguished from the elephant and all other animals by the remarkable and offensive weapon he carries upon his nose. This is a very hard horn, solid throughout, directed forward, and has been seen four feet in length. Mr, Browne, in his Travels, says, that the Arabians call the rhinoceros abukurn, “father of the one horn.” The rhinoceros is very hurtful, by the prodigious devastation which he makes in the fields. This circumstance peculiarly illustrates the passage from Job. Instead of trusting him to bring home the grain, the husbandman will endeavour to prevent his entry into the fields, and hinder his destructive ravages. In a note upon this passage, Mr. Good says, “the original reem, by all the older translators rendered rhinoceros, or unicorn, is by some modern writers supposed to be the bubalus, bison, or wild ox. There can be no doubt that rhinoceros is the proper term; for this animal is universally known in Arabia, by the name of reem, to the present day.” The rhinoceros, though next in size, yet in docility and ingenuity greatly inferior, to the elephant, has never yet been tamed, so as to assist the labours of mankind, or to appear in the ranks of war. The rhinoceros is perfectly indocile and untractable, though neither ferocious nor carnivorous. He is among large animals what the hog is among smaller ones, brutal and insensible; fond of wallowing in the mire, and delighting in moist and marshy situations near the banks of rivers. He is, however, of a pacific disposition; and, as he feeds on vegetables, has few occasions for conflict. He neither disturbs the less, nor fears the greater, beasts of the forest, but lives amicably with all. He subsists principally on large succulent plants, prickly shrubs, and the branches of trees; and lives to the age of seventy or eighty years.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

ū?ni-kôrn (ראם, re'ēm (Num_23:22; Num_24:8; Deu_33:17; Job_39:9, Job_39:10; Psa_22:21; Psa_29:6; Psa_92:10; Isa_34:7)): ?Unicorn? occurs in the King James Version in the passages cited, where the Revised Version (British and American) has ?wild-ox? (which see).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.


Fig. 334?Unicorn: Bibos cavifrons
The radical meaning of the Hebrew word (reem) thus rendered furnishes no evidence that an animal such as is now understood by 'unicorn' was known to exist, or that a rhinoceros is thereby absolutely indicated; and here is no authority whatever for the inference that either was at anytime resident in Western Asia.

Fig. 335?Horn of the unknown species of Rhinoceros
The Indian rhinocerotes are essentially tropical animals, and there is no indication extant that in a wild state they ever extended to the west of the Indus. Early colonies and caravans from the East most probably brought rumors of the power and obstinacy of these animals to Western Asia, and it might have been remarked that under excitement the rhinoceros raises its head and horn on high, as it were in exultation, though it is most likely because the sense of smelling is more potent in it than that of sight, which is only lateral, and confined by the thickness of the folds of skin projecting beyond the eye-balls. The rhinoceros is not absolutely untamable?a fact implied even in Job. Thus we take this species as the original type of the unicorn; but the active invention of Arabic minds, accidentally, perhaps, in the first instance, discovered a species of Oryx (generically bold and pugnacious ruminants), with the loss of one of its long, slender, and destructive horns. In this animal the reem of the Hebrews and the far East became personified, being most probably an Oryx Leucoryx, since individuals of that species have been repeatedly exhibited in subsequent ages as unicorns, when accident or artifice had deprived them of one of their frontal weapons. In Africa, however, among three or four known species of rhinoceros, and vague rumors of a Bisulcate species of unicorn, probably only the repetition of Arabian reports, there appears to exist between Congo, Abyssinia, and the Cape, precisely the terra incognita of Africa, a real pachydermous animal; which seems to possess the characteristics of the poetical unicorn. In the narratives of the natives of the different regions in question there is certainly both exaggeration and error; but they all incline to a description which would make the animal indicated a pachyderm of the rhinoceros group, with a long and slender horn proceeding from the forehead, perhaps with another incipient behind it, and in general structure much lighter than other rhinocerotes.




The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Num_24:8 (a) The power and strength of Israel in her prosperity is represented by this animal. We do not know just what animal it was, but from the description it must have been same prehistoric monster built like the rhinoceros. From the fact that it had just one horn, we may understand that this represents just the one Person who could strengthen and use Israel, and that one was their GOD.

Deu_33:17 (a) This figure represents one who has unusual strength and power. It probably represents Joseph, with his great influence for the benefit of his children.

Psa_22:21 (b) Here we see the figure which is used by our Lord to represent the terrible power of His enemies, who had Him under their control and were putting Him to death at Calvary.

Psa_92:10 (b) This describes the great power and invincible might which the Psalmist knew would be his because he believed GOD, and walked with Him.
Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types
press 1957.


is the invariable but unfortunate rendering in the A.V. of a Heb. word which occurs nine times in three slightly varied forms (רְאֵם, on Num_23:22; Num_24:8; plur. [רְאֵמַים, reelym] Psa_29:6; Isa_34:7; רְאֵים, reeym, Psa_42:10; ) רֵים, reym, Job_39:9-10; and רֵם, rem [only with plur. רֵמַים,Viz.; remim], Psa_22:21; never with the article; Sept. μονοκέρως or ἁδρός; Vulg. rhinoceros or unicornis), as the name of some large wild-animal. More, perhaps, has been written on the subject of the unicorn of the ancients than on any other animal, and various are the opinions which have been given as to the creature intended. The etymology of the Heb. term (according to Gesenius, from רָאִם=רוּם, to be high; but according to Fürst, from an obscure root רָאִם, to roar) affords no clear indication of the animal, and hence we must resort to indirect means for elucidating the subject.
I. Scriptural Characteristics. — The great strength of the reem is mentioned in Num_23:22; Job_39:11; his having two horns in Deu_33:17; his fierce nature in Psa_22:21; his indomitable disposition in Job_39:9-11; the active and playful habits of the young animal are alluded to in Psa_29:6; while in Isa_34:6-7, where Jehovah is said to be preparing “a sacrifice in Bozrah,” it is added, “Reeim shall come down, and the bullocks with the bulls.” The following is a close rendering of Job's famous description of this animal (Job_39:9-12):
“Will Reym be disposed to serve thee? Would he perchance lodge on thy stall? Canst thou tie Reym in a furlow [with] his braid? Will he perchance harrow valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust in him, because vast [is] his force; Or leave to him thy labor? Wilt thou believe in him, that he will return [home] thy seed, Or [into] thy threshing-plat gather [it]?”
II. Modern Attempts at Identification. —
1. The reem of the Hebrew Bible has little at all to do with the one horned animal mentioned by Ctesias (Indica, 4:25-27), Elian (Nat. Anim. 16:20), Aristotle (Hist. Anim. 2, 2, 8), Pliny (I1. N 8 ‘31), and other Greek and Roman writers (Solin. 55; Niceph. E. 9, 19), as is evident from Deu_33:17, where, in the blessing of Joseph, it is said, “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn” (רְאֵם קִרְנֵי), not, as the text of the A.V. renders it, “the horns of unicorns.” The two horns of the reem are “the ten thousands of Ephraim and the thousands of Manasseh” the two tribes which sprang from one i.e. Joseph, as two horns from one head. This text puts a one horned animal entirely out of the question, and, in consequence, disposes of the opinion held by Bruce (Trav. 5, 89) and others, that some species of rhinoceros is denoted, or that maintained by some writers that the reem is identical with some one-horned animal said to have been seen by travelers in South Africa and in Thibet (see Barrow, Travels, in South Africa, 1, 312-318; Asiatic Journal, 11:154), and identical with the veritable unicorn of Greek and Latin writers.
Little, however, can be urged in favor of the rhinoceros, for, even allowing that the two-horned species of Abyssinia (Robicornis) may have been an inhabitant of the woody districts near the Jordan in Biblical times, this pachyderm must be out of the question, as one which would have been forbidden to be sacrificed by the law of Moses; whereas the reem is mentioned by Isaiah as coming down with bullocks and rams to the Lord's sacrifice. “Omnia animalia,” says Rosenmüller (Schol. in Is. loc. cit.), “ad sacrificia idonea in unum congregantur.” Again, the skipping of the young reem (Psa_29:6) is scarcely compatible with the habits of a rhinoceros. Moreover, this animal, when unmolested, is not generally an object of much dread, nor can we believe that it ever existed so plentifully in the Bible lands, or even would have allowed itself to be sufficiently often seen so as to be the subject of frequent attention, the rhinoceros being an animal of retired habits.
2. Bochart (Hieroz. 2, 335) contends that the Hebrew reem is identical with the Arabic rim, which is usually referred to the Oryx leucoryx, the white antelope of North Africa, and at one time, perhaps, an inhabitant of Palestine. Bochart has been followed by Rosenmüller, Winer, and others.
But with regard to the claims of the Oryx leucoryx, it must be observed that this antelope, like the rest of the family, is harmless unless wounded or hard pressed by the hunter; nor is it remarkable for the possession of any extraordinary strength. Figures of the Oryx frequently occur on the Egyptian sculptures, “being among the animals tamed by the Egyptians and kept in great numbers in their preserves” (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 1, 227, ed. 1854). Certainly this antelope can never be the fierce indomitable ream mentioned in the book of Job (see Lichtenstein, Ueb. d. Antilopen des nordl. Africa [ Berl. 1826]). SEE ANTELOPE.
3. Arnold Boot (Animad. Sacr. 3, 8. [Lond. 1644]), with much better reason, conjectures that some species of Urus, or wild-ox, is the reem of the Hebrew Scriptures. He has been folloswed by Schultens (Comnment. in Jobum 39:9, who translates the term by Bos sylcestris: this learned writer has a long and most valuable note on this question), Parkhurst (Heb. Lex, s.v. ראם), Maurer (Comment. in Job. loc. cit.), Dr. Harris (Nat. Hist. of the Bible), and by Cary (Notes on Job, loc. cit.). Considering that the reem is spoken of as a two-horned animal of great strength and ferocity, that it was evidently well known and often seen by the Jews, that it is mentioned as an animal fit for sacrificial purposes, and that it is frequently associated with bulls and oxen, we think there can be no doubt that some species of wild ox is intended.
The allusion in Psa_92:10,” But thou shalt lift up, as a reeynz, my horn,” seems to point to the mode in which the Bovidae use their horns, lowering the head and then tossing it up. But it is impossible to determine what particular species of wild-ox is signified. At present there is no existing example of any wild bovine animal found in Palestine; but negative evidence in this respect must not be interpreted as affording testimony against the supposition that wild cattle formerly existed in the Bible lands. The lion, for instance, was once not infrequently met with in Palestine, as is evident from Biblical allusions; but no traces of living specimens now exist there. Dr. Roth found lions bones in a gravel bed of the Jordan some few years ago; and it is not improbable that some future explorer may succeed in discovering bones and skulls of some huge extinct Urus, allied, perhaps, to that gigantic ox of the Hercynian forests which Coesar (Bell. Gall. 6:20) describes as being of a stature scarcely below that of an elephant, and so fierce as to spare neither man nor beast should it meet with either. “Notwithstanding assertions to the contrary,” says Col. Hamilton Smith (Kitto, Cyclop. art. “Reem”), “the urus and the bison were spread anciently from the Rhine to China, and existed in Thrace and Asia Minor; while they, or allied species, are still found in Siberia and the forests both of Northern and Southern Persia. Finally, though the buffalo was not found anciently farther west than Aracoria, the gigantic Gaur-Bibos gaurus) and several congeners are spread over all the mountain wildernesses of India and the Sheriff al-Wady; and a further colossal species roams with other wild bulls in the valleys of Atlas. We figure Bibos cavifrions, a species which is believed to be still found south- west of the Indus, and is not remote from that of the Atlas valleys.” SEE WILD BULL.
4. Russell (Aleppo, 2, 7), Robinson (Bibl. Res. 2, 412), and Gesenius (Thesaur. 5.) have little doubt that the buffalo (Bubalus buffalus) is the reem of the Bible; and this opinion is shared by Umbreit, Hitzig, Ewald, Hengstenberg, and other commentators. Although the Chainsa, or tame buffalo, was not introduced into Western Asia until the Arabian conquest of Persia it is possible that some wild species (Bubalus arnee, or B. brachycerus) may have existed formerly in Palestine. SEE BUFFALO.
III. The Unicorn Proper. — Legendary Notices. Throughout classical antiquity (as seen above) vague notions of a true unicorn prevailed. In the ὄνοι ἄγριοι of Ctesias, which were larger than horses-white, with a horn on the forehead a cubit long, which were very swift and strong, not ferocious unless attacked, and then irresistible, so that they could not be taken alive-we can trace the original of the familiar form that figures in the English national heraldic shield. Aristotle and Herodotus follow Ctesias, and Strabo gives the unicorn a deer-like head. Oppian makes it a bull with undivided hoofs and a frontal horn; and Caesar, who puts it in the Hercynian forest, gives its single horn palmate branches like those of a deer. Pliny draws the portrait with the greatest attention to details. It was a most savage beast, generally like a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant, the tail of a boar a deep bellowing voice, and a single black horn, two cubits long, projecting from the middle of its forehead. See the Ann. and Mag. of Nat. Hist. Nov. 1862.
Although the medallic history of the kings of Macedon (Havercampius, Genesis Hist. [in the Dutch language]) furnishes no coins bearing a single- horned goat, it is still asserted by Maillot ant others that such was to be found among their ensigns; but this was most probably after the- Macedonian conquest; for a single horned ibex appears on the bas-reliefs of Che el-Minar; another occurs on a cylinder; and one cast in brass, supposed to have been the head of a Macedonian standard, was found in Asia Minor, and presented to the Antiquarian Society of London. If mysterious names were resolvable by the canons of pictorial definition, the practice of imagining horns to be affixed to the most sublime and sacred objects would be most evident from the radical meaning of the word cherub, where the notion of horns is everywhere blended with that of “power and greatness.” SEE CHERUBIM.
There were also horns at the corners of altars-the beast with ten horns in Daniel etc. (ch. 7). In profane history we have the goat head ornament on the helmet of the kings of Persia, according to Ammianus, more probably Ammon horns: such Alexander the Great had assumed; and his successors in Egypt and in Persia continued a custom even now observed by the chief cabossiers of Ashantee, who have a similar ram-head of solid gold on the front of their plumy war-caps. Indeed, from early antiquity Greek and Ionian helmets were often adorned with two horns; among others the head of Seleucus I (Nicator) appears thus on his coins. The practice extended to metal horns being affixed to the masks or chaffrons of war-horses (so coins of Seleucuis Nicator) and of elephants (Antiochus Soter); and they form still, or did lately, apart of the barbed horse-armor in Rajahstan. Triple-horned and bicorn led helmets are found on early Gallic and Iberian coins; they were again in use during the chivalrous ages; but the most remarkable, the horn of strength and domination seem elevated on the front of the helmet impressed on the reverse of the coins of the tyrant Tryphon, who, in his endeavors to obtain Syria, was at war with Antiochus Sidetes during the era of the Maccabees, and was not likely to omit any attribute that once belonged to its ancient kings. SEE HORN.
2. Scientific Descriptions. — In later times the fancy ran riot in describing and figuring the unicorn, and .no one who attempted a ‘Historia Naturalis thought his work complete Without full particulars concerning this interesting beast. As some of the descriptions of the ancients were a little inconsistent with each other, and as the materials were too valuable to allow any to be sacrificed, different species of unicorn were established, in the copiousness of which the most fastidious student might satisfy his choice. Thus there were the waldesel, the meer-wolf, the ox-hoofed unicorn, the camel-hoofed unicorn, the sea unicorn (not the cetacean so named), the two-horned wald-esel (one horn behind the other), and several others, all of which are duly figured by the indefatigable Johnston (Hist. Nult. 1657).
Admitting that there is abundance of chaff in all this, naturalists have for some time been inclining to admit that there may be some little wheat also (see Meyer, Ueb. d. Siugthier Reem [Leips. 1796]). The rhinoceroses of India and Africa showed that a single central horn was not in itself unnatural; and the discovery of several species of this huge pachyderm in the southern parts of the latter continent has brought out some features of the old descriptions which had been assumed to be fabulous. Some years since the missionary Campbell excited much interest by sending home from South Africa the head of a rhinoceros which came much nearer that of ‘the traditionary unicorn than anything as yet known to naturalists. It bore a single straight slender horn, projecting from the face to the height of three feet, with a small tubercle shaped horn immediately behind this. The zoological researches of Dr. Andrew Smith, and the exploits of not a few naturalist sportsmen in the wild beast regions lying to the north of the Cape Colony, have made us familiar with this species (Rhinoceros. simus), as well as others with a similar arrangement of horns.



CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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