Martial Arts Gear
Western Unicorns Of The Ancient World
Although unicorns certainly existed in Europe during pre - Christian times indeed they are mentioned repeatedly in the Old Testament, as a translation of the Hebrew re'em the animals were apparently so shy that most of the early writing about them seems to derive from the Arabian lore of the karkadann.
| In Persia, Arabia, India, and North Africa, the ferocious karkadann, so different from the gentle ki-lin was greatly feared by humans as well as by other animals. However, people would occasionally attempt capture the karkadann for its horn, which could either be shaped into a magical flute or ground up an used as an antidote for poisons. Ctesias, a physician traveled from his home in Cnidus to practice medicine in the court of Darius II, then King of Persia. Between the time he left Cnidus, in 416 B. C., and when he returned to Cnidus in 398 B. C., he learned a great deal of the life and history of Persia, which he attempted to preserve. One of his works, Indica, has only been preserved in the form of fragmented abstracts that were transcribed about five centuries later. In the twenty-fifth fragment of Induce, Ketosis described the unicorn as follows: There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses, and larger. Their bodies are white, their |
heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn on the forehead which is about a foot and a half in length. The dust filed from this horn is administered in a potion as a protection against
| deadly drugs. The base of this horn, for some two hand's-breadth above the brow, is pure white; the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson; and the |
|
remainder, or middle portion, is black. Those who drink out of these horns, made into drinking vessels, are not subject, they say, to convulsions |
or to the holy disease (epilepsy). Indeed, they are immune to poisons if, either before or after swallowing such, they drink wine, water, or anything else from these beakers.
Star Gazing Unicorn
Now $3.99 .
Stock #11111a.
|