A wild animal with
one horn that was said by some to have been a karkadann had been
captured and presented to Alexander's father, Philip. Neither Philip
nor any of the noblemen of his court had been able to mount the animal
without being thrown off immediately. Alexander the Great tamed him and
named him Bucephalus. He proved his bravery by mounting him and riding
him into battle. The question of how such a dangerous animal might have
been captured alive is an interesting one. In the opinion of Aelian, a
Roman writer of the third century A. D., only the youngest
"cartazons" could be
captured at all, since the enormous strength of the adults made them
almost impossible to subdue. The fieriocity of the karkadann influenced
writer's discriptions of the unicorn. Thus, Isidore of Seville, writing
about 600 A.D., considered the unicorn a "right cruell beaust" and one
that frequently fought with elephants. He further noted that only by
trickery and |
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the use of a maiden could
a unicorn be captured. A unicorn would approach and willingly lay its head
on the lap of a maiden and fall asleep, it could then be safely approached
and slain by hunters.
It is felt that the single-horned beast that haunts the
high snows of the Himalayas has the most ancient tradition; and many
authorities cite Tibet as the most likely source of unicorn legends, though
there was a time in history when the so - called Mountains of the Moon,
heaving high over Abyssinia, held pride of place. The tradition was long and
strong. It is not surprising that four brazen unicorns dominated the court
of Abyssinian kings. |
