"Subus is an amphibion, with two Horns: he follows shoals of fish
swimming in the Sea, Lobsters, Pagri, and Oculatae, are fishes that love
him; but he cares for none of their love, but makes them all his prey.
[Illustration: THE SPHINX OR SPHINGA.]
"The Sphinx or Sphinga is of the kinde of Apes, having his body rough
like Apes, having the upper part like a woman and their visage much like
them. The voice very like a man's, but not articular, sounding as if one
did speak hastily or with sorrow. Their haire browne or swarthy colour.
They are bred in India and Ethyopia. The true Sphinx is of a fierce
though a tameable nature and if a man do first of all perceive or
discerne of these natural _Sphinges_, before the beast discerne or
perceive the man, he shall be safe; but if the beast first descrie the
man, then is it mortal to the man.
[Illustration: THE MANTICHORA.]
"The Mantichora is bred among the Indians, having a treble row of teeth
beneathe and above, whose greatnesse, roughnesse and feete are like a
Lyons, his face and ears like unto a mans, his eyes grey and collour
red, his taile like the taile of a scorpion of the earth, armed with a
sting, casting forth sharp pointed quills, his voice like the voice of a
small trumpet or pipe, being in course as swift as a Hart."
Then follows further description of the Mantichora. This singular
combination of lion, man, scorpion, and porcupine was implicitly
believed in by all the natural history writers up to Goldsmith's day,
and we are not sure that that pleasing but gullible scribe did not,
privately at least, accord its existence full credence.
Leigh Hunt, in his Autobiography, describes the extraordinary effect
which a sight of this beast had upon him when he encountered it in an
old folio during his childhood. The Mantichora, he says, "unspeakably
shocked me. It had the head of a man, grinning with rows of teeth, and
the body of a wild beast, brandishing a tail armed with stings. It was
sometimes called by the ancients Martichora. But I did not know that. I
took the word to be a horrible compound of man and tiger. The beast
figures in Pliny and the old travellers. Appolonius takes a fearful joy
in describing him. 'Mantichora,' says old Morell--'bestia horrenda'--'a
brute fit to give one the horrors.' The possibility of such creatures
being pursued never occurred to me. Alexander, I thought, might have
been encountered while crossing the Granicus, and elephants might be
driven into the sea, but how could anyone face a beast with a man's
head?" Leigh Hunt goes on to describe how the Mantichora impressed his
whole childhood. Doubtless the sensations of the eighteenth-century
child were the same felt by the early seventeenth century Prince Henry.
The Mantichora was the _bête noire_ of the Royal nursery, we may depend
upon it.
Scarcely less dreadful was the Collogruis, whose picture is given on the
next page.
How many of us have heard of the Colus?
"There is," we read, "among the Scithians and Sarmatians a foure-footed
wild beast called Colus, being in quantitie and stature betwixt a Ramnie
and a Hart and dusky white coloured, but the young ones yellow." The
real peculiarity of the Colus, which makes every true lover of
quadrupeds regret its extinction, is described as follows: "Her manner
is to drinke by the holes in her nostrils, whereby she snuffeth up
aboundance of water and carrieth it in her head, so that she will live
in dry pastures remote from all moisture and great season, quenching her
thirst by that cisterne in her head." Imagination conjures up a huge
drove of Colii, blissfully encamped in the midst of the Sahara,
astonishing the passing Bedouins by their sagacity and the amazing
cisterns in their craniums. There was no use trying to capture them, so
fleet and nimble were they, unless, indeed, the hunter had taken the
precaution to arm himself with a flute or a timbrel. In that case he had
only to strike up a few airs and it was all up with the poor Colus. He
would fall down with weakness, and a simple blow with a staff sufficed
to dispatch him. He made excellent eating; flavoured, we suppose, by the
contents of the cranial cistern afore described.
[Illustration: THE COLLOGRUIS.]
"The Camelopard or Giraffe is a beaste full of spots. He hath two little
hornes growing on his head the colour of iron, his eies rolling and
growing, his mouth but small like a hart's; his tongue is neare three
foot long. The pace of this beast differeth from all other in the world,
for he doth not move his right and left foote one after another, but
both together, and so likewise the other, whereby his whole body is
removed at every step or straine."
We must perforce skip the descriptions of the three kinds of Apes--Ape
Satyre, the Ape Norwegian, and the Ape Pan. Then there are such
creatures as the Axis, the Alborach, the Cacus, the Allocamell, and the
Tragelaphus.
And how shall we tell of the Dictyes, the Crucigeran, the Gulon, and the
Gorgon? Then there are dissertations on those fearful quadrupeds the
Orynx and the Tarbarine.
[Illustration: THE POEPHAGUS.]
But the Poephagus ought to detain the modern student a moment, as it
must often have engrossed Prince Henry by the hour.
"This great beaste whose everie hair is two cubitts in length & yet
finer than a man's, is one of the fearfullest creatures in the World:
for if he perceive him to be but looked at by anybody he taketh to his
heels as fast as he can goe."
The cause of his fright is his tail, which is much sought after by the
natives to bind up their hair. When the hunted Poephagus can "no longer
avoyde the hunter then doth he turne himselfe, hiding his taile, &
looketh upon the face of the hunter with some confidence, gathering his
wits together, as if to face out that he had no tayle, & that the
residue of his body were not worth looking after."
Sly Poephagus! But his stratagem is in vain. For "they take off the
skinne and the taile," perhaps not even killing him, and so leaving the
luckless Poephagus to go roaming about the country skinless and
tailless--a piteous sight. But stay. "Volateranus relateth this
otherwise, that the beast biteth off his own taile and so delivereth
himself from the hunter, knowing that he is not desired for any other
cause." Can we not conjure up the scene for ourselves?
"Hunter: So sorry to trouble you, but your taile or your life!
"Poephagus: No trouble at all, I assure you. Allow me (_bites off his
taile_). Pray accept it with my compliments (_hunter bows and
retires_)."
"The Neades were certain beastes whose voice was so terrible that they
shook the earth therewith," but the Strepficeros, though endowed with a
more resonant title, was a very simple, inoffensive quadruped after all.
"The Cepus was a four-footed beast having a face like a Lyon & some part
of the body like a panther, being as big as a wild goat or Roe-buck, or
as one of the dogs of _Erithrea_ & a long taile, the which such of them
as having tasted flesh will eat from their own bodies."
"The Calitrich had a long beard and a large taile." You perceive the
early naturalists set great store by an animal's caudal appendage. It
gave them scope for their descriptive powers.
And now let us learn something about the Cynocephale. "The Cynocephales
are a kind of Apes, whose heads are like Dogges & their other part like
a mans. Some there are which are able to write & naturally to discerne
letters which kind the Priests bring into their Temples, & at their
first entrance, the Priest bringeth him a writing Table, a pencil & Inke
that so by seeing him write he may make by all whether he be of the
right kind & the beast quickly sheweth his skill. The Nomades, people of
Ethiopia & the nations of Mentimori live upon the milk of Cynocephals,
keeping great heards of them, & killing all the males."
[Illustration: A CYNOCEPHALE.]
"The Elk is a four-footed beast commonly found in Scandinavia. His upper
lip hangs out so long that he cannot eat but going backwards. He is
subject to the falling sicknesse, the remedy he hath is to lift up the
right claw of the hinder foot & put it to his left ear. It holds the
same virtue if you cut it off."
Of the ram we are told that "for six winter months he sleeps on his
right side; but after the vernal equinoctiall he rests on his right.
Ælianus hath discovered this, but the butchers deny it."
[Illustration: CAMELS.]
"The Camel hath a manifold belly, either because he hath a great body:
or, because he eats Thorny & Woody substances, God hath provided for the
concoction. Puddle water is sweet to him, nor will he drink river water,
till he hath troubled it with his foot. He lives a hundred years,
unlesse the Ayre agree not with him. When they are on a journey they do
not whip them forward: but they sing to them, whereby they run so fast
that men can hardly follow them."
Modern zoologists must regret the extinction of the sixteenth-century
She-goat, which, according to Prince Henry's natural history, "see as
well by night as day, wherefore if those that are blind in the night eat
a _Goats_ liver they are granted sight. They breathe out of their eares
and nostrils."
Farther along, the national animal of the greatest of British dominions
beyond the seas is thus described:--
"The _Beaver_ is a most strong creature to bite, he will never let go
his teeth that meet, before he makes the bones crack. His hinder feet
are like a Gooses and his fore-feet like an Apes. His fat tail is
covered with a scaly skin, & he uses for a rudder when he pursues fish.
He comes forth of his holes in the night: & biting off boughs of Trees
about the Rivers, he makes his houses with an upper loft. When they are
cut asunder they are very delightsome to see; for one lies on his back &
hath the boughs between his legges & others draw him by the tail to
their cottage.
"A Baboon is a Creature with a head like a dog, but in shape like a man;
he will fish cunningly, for he will dive all day, & bring forth
abundance of fish."
Here is a picture of a Hippopotamus or Sea-Horse devouring a crocodile
tail first.
[Illustration: A HIPPOPOTAMUS DEVOURING A CROCODILE.]
"The Elephant is a stranger with us, but that the Indians & other places
have them in common. The King of the Palibroti had 90,000 of them. Many
strange things are spoken of them. It is certain that of old time they
carried Castles of armed men into the Field. In his heart, says
Aldrovandus, he hath a wonderful big bone. Aristotle maintains that he
hath three Stomacks. It is most certain (continues the careful
chronicler) that in the Kingdom of Malabar they talk together, & speak
with man's voice. There was, saith Ocafta, in Cochin an Elephant, who
carried things to the Haven & laboured in the sea-faring matters: when
he was weary the Governor of the place did force him to draw a galley
from the Haven which he had begun to draw, into the sea: the Elephant
refused it the Governor gave him good words, & at the last entreated him
to do it for the King of Portugal, thereupon (it is hardly credible) the
elephant was moored, & repeated these two words clearly, _Hoo, Hoo_,
which in the language of Malabar is, _I will, I will_, & he presently
drew the ship into the Sea.... They learn things so eagerly that Pliny
says that an Elephant that was something dull, & was often beat for not
learning well, was found acting his part by moon-light, & some say that
_Elephants_ will learn to write & read. One of them learned to describe
the Greek letters, & did write in the same tongue these words, _I myself
writ this_."
"But," concludes the zoologist, conscious of having clinched the matter
by this last proof, "_I will say no more_."
"The Ichneumon is a creature in Egypt with a long tail like a Serpents.
He is an enemy to the Crocodile; for when he observes him sleeping he
rolles himself in clay, & goes into his mouth, & so into his belly &
eats his liver, & then leaps forth again."
[Illustration: THE ICHNEUMON.]
Loaded with all his zoological learning we can understand how Prince
Henry became a very bright little boy, far in advance of his years. We
can also dimly perceive why he died so young.
It is not given to every youth--nor to every prince--to devour such
marvels and live in peace and content at home or at Court, surrounded by
the conventions of everyday English life. But had he survived this
accumulation of wisdom, the realm would surely have boasted under King
Henry IX. a "Zoo" compared with which our present establishment,
excellent as it is, would have been paltry indeed. But it is too late to
repine. The mantichora, the lamia, the gryphon, and the poephagus are
presumably extinct, while as for our lions, bears, giraffes, and the
rest of the "foure-footed beastes," these appear to have miserably
abandoned all those curious traits which rendered them glorious in
little Prince Henry's days, and which, we trust, will long reflect
lustre on their past.