OCR Text |
Show HAVE LIFE ONLY IN FABLES Wall-Known but Never Seen Animals Among Thsm ths Phoenix Dragon and Unicorn. Thero are some mythological monsters mons-ters which all of us hovo hoard of, but nono of us have ovor seen. Who, for Instance, has ovor set eyes on a Phoenix, that remarkablo bird, mentioned men-tioned even by church writers, which renews Its youth In tho flro? And yot thero nre few birds whose names aro more widely known In splto of fairy tales and Chlucso armorial bearings whero Is the museum muse-um that contains oven a bone, let alone a skeleton of a dragon? As a matter of fnct, did snakes ever lly? Equally fanciful Is tho unicorn. Moro ought to bo known about this good and gentle animal. In particular particu-lar ho U susceptible to femalo charms, a fact that was taken ndvnntago of by hunters, who, uccordlng to thd story books, used a beautiful maiden as a decoy to enable them to capture tho unicorn Tho chief prlzo about tho unicorn was not tho brush, as In the case of tha fo:., but tho horn. This was considered the finest nntl-doto nntl-doto to poison, and so btrong was tills belief that almost up to tho tlmo of tho French Hoolutlou all food set red at tho rojal table in Fianco 'asl touched touch-ed with a piece of whui wuj bupposod to be the horn of a unlearn Even In China legends about tho unicorn pre-vail pre-vail Theie It Is described as so gentle gen-tle that It would not wall: on growing grass or tread on the smallest Insect. Unicorn, It may bo added, were the supporters of the arms of the old kings of Scotland, and for that reason tho unicorn is represented today in tho British armorial bearings. |