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CHAPTER XXXIII.

MONSTERS AND FABULOUS ANIMALS.

Origin of Fables.-The Sloth in Africa.-The Roc.-The Unicorn.-Described by the Ancients.-Account of Barthema.-Account of Tellez.-Tailed Men of the Eastern Archipelago.-Tailed Men of Africa.-Tailed Men of Kent.

It must be laid down as a certain principle that man can originate nothing; that lies are always truths embellished, distorted, There are other facts besides those which or turned inside out. lie on the surface, and it is the duty of the traveler and historian to sift and wash the gold-grains of truth from the dirt of fable.

It was a saying of the ancients that Africa is always affording something new. As in the days of Pliny and Herodotus, so now it still remains par excellence the land of mystery and of romance. It is true that some of the ancient myths have been sobered down to natural beings. The men with dogs' heads, of whom Herodotus speaks, are the barking baboons which I saw in the Senegal; the men with their heads under their shoulders, their eyes in their breast, are the ill-formed negroes, whose shoulders are shrugged up, and whose heads drop on their breasts; the mermaids of the Arab tales are the sea-cows of the African rivers, which have feminine dugs, and a face almost human in expression; the huge serpent which opposed the army of Regulus is now well known as the python; the burning mountains which Hanno saw, and the sounds as of lutes which were believed to proceed from the strife of the elements, are only caused by the poor negroes burning the grass on their hill-tops; the music being that of their flutes, as I have heard it often in those long and silent African nights far

away.

But those who have studied African literature must confess that we know little more respecting the natural productions of this country than the ancients did. Many of the stories of Herodotus, which in the last century were ridiculed as absurd, have been endorsed by the experience of recent travelers. Is it not possible that some of those accounts which we still regard as fabulous may yet be cited against us by another generation?

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Incredulity has now become so vulgar a folly, that one is almost tempted, out of simple hatred for a fashion, to run into the opposite extreme. However, I shall content myself with citing evidence respecting certain unknown, fabulous, and monstrous animals of Africa, without committing myself to an opinion one way or the other, preserving only my conviction that there is always a basis of truth to the most fantastic fables, and that, by rejecting without inquiry that which appears incredible, one throws away ore in which others might have found a jewel. A traveler should believe nothing, for he will find himself so often deceived; and he should disbelieve nothing, for he will see so many wonderful things he should doubt; he should investigate; and then he may perhaps discover.

Many curious animals are made mention of by the old authors as existing in Africa-of an animal near Sierra Leone "which had a stone in his forehead, which gives him light to feed by, but, as soon as he hears the least noise, he covers it with a film or skin to prevent being discovered; of a water-ox which resembles a buffalo, having hoofed feet, but which is amphibious like the hippopotamus; of white monkeys, winged dragons, and great seaserpents.

One can easily understand that the animal with the glow-worm development is only some variety of the cat kind, whose eyes are remarkably powerful at night. The water-ox is probably some buffalo, which, like the water-buck of Southern Africa, spends most of the day wallowing in the rivers. The white monkeys, which are often mentioned by the early voyagers, and of which I was given a detailed account in the Muni country, are probably albinoes, like those which are found among buffaloes, elephants, and, indeed, most animals. As for the winged dragons, it is not impossible that such an animal exists, as we have the type preserved in the draco volans, a little lizard with a membrane like a bat's wing; but it is, to say the least of it, very improbable.

The flying squirrel exists in Equatorial Africa; and I believe that I have been the first to see this curious little animal in that country. An antelope striped like a zebra is said to exist in Central Africa. But the most curious type existing in Africa is that of the sloth, which has always been supposed to be peculiar to the New World.

Barbot mentions the entigiengio, a small creature very curiously streaked, slender-bodied, with a fine tail and legs. "It never

comes upon the earth; for the very touch thereof proves mortal to it, therefore keeps to the trees, and has always twenty blackhaired creatures called embis attending it; that is, ten before and ten behind. They take the ten first in snares, and then the ten behind make their escape, by which means the animal, bereaved of its guard, is also taken. The skin of this little beast bears such a value that none but the kings may wear it."

This would appear to be a distorted account of a sloth, and the following description by Artus of Dantzic, and Bosman, two of the most reliable authorities on Africa, satisfactorily proves the existence of this animal: "Here is a creature by the natives called Potto, but known to the Dutch by the name of sluggard, a whole day being little enough for it to advance ten steps forward.

"Some writers affirm that, when this Creature has climbed up a Tree, he does not leave it till he has not only eaten up the Fruit, but Leaves also; then descending fat, and in very good Case, in order to get up into another Tree; But, before he can compass this, he becomes as poor and lean as possible; and if the Trees be high or at any Distance, and he meets with nothing on his Journey, he inevitably dies with Hunger betwixt one Tree and another. But the Author will not undertake for the Truth of this Story, though the Negroes seem to believe something like it."

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This creature, according to Bosman, is so horribly ugly that he does not believe any thing in the world can come up to it. fore feet are very like Hands, the Head most disproportionally large. When very young, it is of a pale mouse colour, and the Skin smooth; But when old it is red, and covered with a sort of Hair as thick-set as Flocks of Wool." Bosman knew nothing more of this animal than that it is impossible to look on it without horror, and that it has nothing very particular but its hideous form.*

The existence of the roc of Marco Polo and the "Arabian Nights" is now proved by the discovery of an immense egg in a semi-fossil state in Madagascar. This egg (a cast of which is in the British Museum) must have been emitted by a bird double the size of the ostrich. At present it would appear to be confined. to that island; but I find in Father Lobo's account of Abyssinia

* Since writing the above I have been informed by Dr. Gray that specimens of these animals have been brought to England; that they are not true sloths, having lemur-like teeth; and that perfect specimens from Guinea would be gladly received by naturalists.

a description of this bird. He not only repeats the exaggerated tales of the natives, who declare that it can carry away an elephant in its talons, but, like Marco Polo, he asserts that he had actually seen one of its feathers, although he had not seen the bird itself. "In aliquibus autem regionibus vidi pennas alæ istuis avis prodigiosa, licet avem non viderim. Penna illa prout ex forma colligebatur, erat ex mediocribus longitudine 28 palmorum, latitudine 3." And in the narrative of the Lascar Isuf's voyage in Eastern Africa, in Ehrman's "Collection," is a description of the pyon, a bird ten feet in height.

Of all animals which have been classed as fabulous, the unicorn. is the most remarkable, since to this very day it is impossible for a careful writer to make a positive assertion respecting its exist

ence.

The ancients compared their monoceros to a horse with a stag's head, which proves that they had seen an animal very different from the rhinoceros. They also distinctly name the unicorn-ass, an animal of great size, swift of foot, solitary in his habits, and having a horn striped with white, black, and brown.

Garcias, a writer of the sixteenth century, relates that the Portuguese navigators saw, between the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Corrientes, an animal having the head and mane of a horse, with one movable horn. In this same region Sparmann and Barrow saw representations of a one-horned animal. The rocks of Camdebo and Bambo are covered with them-a curious fact, setting zoology aside; for it proves the ancient connection of Caffraria with Asia; the unicorn, among the Persians and Hebrews, being the symbol of kingly power. It is with this meaning delineated on the monuments of Persepolis, and on the royal arms of Great Britain.

The Dutch colonists also, according to Voight, affirmed that they had seen these animals alive, and that they resembled the quagga, while the horn adhered only to the skin.

According to Merolla, the real unicorn is extinct; though I shall quote better authority to prove that it is living than that upon which he makes his assertion. "Here," he says, writing of Angola, "is also the unicorn, called by the Congolans abada, whose medicinal virtue, being sufficiently known, needs not to be taken notice of. These unicorns are very different from those commonly mentioned by authors; and, if you will believe what I

have heard say, there are none of that sort now to be found. A Theatine missioner to the East Indies told me, at his return from Goa, he had endeavored to get one of these last; but, whatever diligence he used, he could by no means obtain it. He added, moreover, that he had heard several of the Eastern people, especially the Chinese authorities, say that, according to their computations, those unicorns all died the same day that our Savior died. What allusion these can have to our Savior may probably be from their chastity; but I must leave all to my good reader, who will condemn and approve, as he thinks fit."

In the fifteenth century, Barthema, or Verdomanus, who preceded Burckhardt and Burton in a pilgrimage to Mecca, gives a minute account of two unicorns which he saw there.

"By the side of the temple there is a large court inclosed by walls, where we saw a unicorn, which they showed us as a curiosity; and not without reason. For the larger one had the form of a colt eighteen months old, a horn in the middle of his forehead the length of three spans. The lesser one was the size of a colt a twelvemonth old, with his horn about four cubits long. The color of this animal was a dark gray, having a head like a stag, the head tolerably long, with a little thin hair hanging on the side; the legs long and graceful, like those of a deer. These two animals were given to the Sultan of Mecca (as a most rich and precious gift) by a king of Ethiopia, who wished to negotiate for peace."

The next authority is that of a Portuguese who had lived some time in Abyssinia, and is quoted by Father Tellez.

"It is certain that the unicorn is not to be confounded with the abada, about which they usually dispute; this one may see by the difference of their names, as well as by the difference of their body and parts, and it would appear by the abada which we have seen, and by the unicorn which we have seen painted. The latter has a long straight horn of admirable virtue; the abada has two crooked horns, which are not so sovereign, although they will serve as antidotes against poison. The country of the unicorn, which is an animal of Africa, where only it is known, is the province of Agoa, in the kingdom of Damotes, although it is occasionally seen in more distant places. This animal is as large as a fine horse, is a dark bay color, the mane and tail black, short, and thin, though in other parts of the province observed to be longer and thicker. On the forehead there is. a beautiful horn five palms

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