Mysterious Creatures : A Guide to Cryptozoology

editions of the Old Testament now translate
it as “wild ox,” its original meaning.
(6) Spiral tusks from the Narwhal (Monodon
monoceros) were widely circulated in the
Middle Ages as Unicorn horns. In 1638, the
Danish scholar Ole Wurm was the first to
identify them as originating from this Arctic
whale.
(7) From the sixteenth to eighteenth
centuries, herding tribes of East Africa used
to twist the horns of their cattle into a
single shape that curved backward. This
practice probably accounts for Lodovico de
Varthema’s report of one-horned cattle in
Somalia in 1503.
(8) A large White rhinoceros (Ceratotherium
simum) probably explains John Campbell’s
1820 discovery in South Africa of a dead
rhino (“real unicorn”) that he thought was a
new species.
(9) Genetic anomalies may have formed
occasional single-horned bulls that attained
herd dominance. A grafting experiment by
William Franklin Dove in 1934 produced a
one-horned calf that adapted well to its
singularity.
(10) A surviving Pleistocene antelope
(Procamptoceras brivatense) that lived in
Europe 1 million years ago. It had two
slightly curved, upward-pointing horns that
were close together and may have appeared
to be a single horn.
Sources: Bible, Old Testament (Num. 23:22;
Deut. 33:17; Pss. 22:21, 29:6, 92:10; Isa. 34:7;
Job 39:9–12); Ctesias, Indika, in J. W.
McCrindle, ed., Ancient India (Calcutta, India:
Thacker, Spink, 1882), pp. 26–27; Aristotle,
Historia animalium, in The Works of Aristotle,
trans. D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (Oxford:
Clarendon, 1910), vol. 4 (II. 2, 8; VI. 36); Julius
Caesar, The Conquest of Gaul, trans. S. A.
Handford (New York: Penguin, 1951), p. 37n
(VI. 26); Pliny, Natural History (VIII. 33); Ælian,
De natura animalium (III. 41, IV. 52, XVI. 20);
Physiologus, in William Rose, ed., The Epic of
the Beast (London: G. Routledge, 1924), pp.
199–200; Felix Fabri, Evagatorium in Terrae
Sanctae, ed. Konrad Hassler [1502] (Stuttgart,
Germany: Societatis Litterariae Stuttgardiensis,
1843–1849), vol. 2, p. 441; Lodovico de
Varthema, The Itinerary of Ludovico di
Varthema of Bologna from 1502–1508 [1520]
(London: Argonaut Press, 1928), I. 17, II. 15;
Pierre Belon, Les observations de plusieurs
singularitez et choses memorables (Paris: G.
Corrozet, 1553); Luis del Marmol Carvajal,
Descripcion general de Affrica (Granada, Spain:
Rene Rabut, 1574–1599), I. cap. 23, fol. 30;
Ulisse Aldrovandi, De quadrupedibus
solidipedibus (Frankfurt, Germany: Joannis
Treudel, 1623); Thomas Bartholin, De
unicornu observationes novae (Passau, Germany:
Typis Cribellianis, 1645); Jeronimo Lobo, A
Short Relation of the River Nile (London: Royal
Society, 1669); Arnoldus Montanus, Die
unbekante Neue Welt, trans. Olfert Dapper
(Amsterdam: J. von Meurs, 1673); Herr von
Wurmb, Briefe des Herrn von Wurmb und des
Herrn Barons von Wollzogen auf ihren Reise nach
Afrika und Ostindien in den Jahren 1774 bis
1792 (Gotha, Germany: Bey Carl Wilhelm
Ettinger, 1794), pp. 412–416; John Campbell,
Travels in South Africa (London: Francis
Westley, 1822), vol. 1, p. 294–295; Fulgence
Fresnel, “Lettre sur certain quadrupèdes réputés
fabuleux,” Journal Asiatique, March 1844, pp.
155–159; Charles Hamilton Smith, “Reem,” in
John Kitto, ed., A Cyclopaedia of Biblical
Literature (New York: Mark H. Newman,
1846), vol. 2, pp. 605–607; Francis Galton,
Narrative of an Explorer in Tropical South Africa
(London: John Murray, 1853), pp. 283–284;
William Balfour Baikie, “In Search of a
Unicorn,” The Athenaeum, August 16, 1862, p.
212; W. Winwood Reade, Savage Africa
(London: Smith, Elder, 1863); Odell Shepard,
The Lore of the Unicorn (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1930); William Franklin Dove,
“Artificial Production of the Fabulous
Unicorn,” Scientific Monthly 42 (1936):
431–436; Margaret B. Freeman, The Unicorn
Tapestries (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1956);
Rüdiger Robert Beer, Unicorn: Myth and Reality
(New York: Mason/Charter, 1977); Larry Brian
Radka, Historical Evidence for Unicorns
(Newport, Del.: Einhorn Press, 1995); Bruno
Faidutti, “Images et connaissance de la licorne
(Fin du Moyen-Age–XIX ème siècle),” Ph.D.
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