 Reference Base  The history of four-footed beastes: describing the true a... |
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Topsell, E., 1607. The history of four-footed beastes: describing the true and lively figure of every beast, with a discourse of their several names, conditions, kindes, vertues (both naturall and medicinall), countries of their breed, their love and hate to mankinde, and the wondefull worke of God in their creation, preservation and destuction. London, William Iaggard, pp. i-xli, 1-759, i-x
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All Rhino Species |
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[1607: 594;1658: 460]
Of the Rhinoceros.
We are now to discourse of the second wonder in nature, namely of a beast every way admirable, both for the outward shape, quantity, and greatness, and also for the inward courage, disposition and mildeness. For as the Elephant was the first wonder, of whom we have already discoursed; so this beast next unto the Elephant filleth up the number, being every way as admirable as he, if he do not exceed him, except in quantity of height or stature; And being now come to the story of this beast, I am hartily sorry, that so strange an outside, as by the figure you may perceive, yealding no doubt through the omnipotent power of the creator, an answerable inside, and infinite testimonies of worthy and memorable vertues comprized in it, should through the ignorance of men, lye unfoulded and obscured before the Readers eyes: for he that shall but see our stories of the Apes, of the Dogs, of the Mice, & of other small beasts, and consider how larg[e] a treatise we have collected together out of many writers, for the illustration of their natures and vulgar conditions, he cannot chuse but expect some rare and strange matters, as much unknowne to his minde about the storie of this Rhinoceros, as the outward shape and picture of him, appeareth rare and admirable to his eies: differing in every part from all the other beasts, from the top of his nose to the tip of his taile, the eares and eies excepted, which are like Beares. But gentle Reader as thou art a man, so thou must consider since Adam went out of Paradise, ther[e] was never any that was able perfectly to describe the universall conditions of all sorts of beasts, and it hath bin the counsell of the almighty hinselfe, for the instruction of man, concerning his fall and natural weakenesse, to keep him from the knowledge of many devine things, and also humane, which is of birds and beasts, Fishes and foule, that so he might learne, the difference betwixt his generation, & his degenration, and consider how great a losse unto him was his fall in Paradise; who before that time knew both God himselfe and al creatures, but since that time neither knoweth God as he should know him, nor himselfe as he shall know it, nor the creatures as hee did know then.
[1607:594; 1658: 462]
But for my part which write the English story, I acknowledge that no man must looke for that at my hands, which I have not received from some other; for I would bee unwilling to write anything untrue, or uncertaine out of mine owne invention; and truth on every part is so deare unto mee, that i will not lie to bring any man in love and admiration with God and his works, for God needeth not the lies of men: To conclude therefore this Preface, as the beast is strange and never seen in this countrey, so my eye-sight cannot add anything to the description: therefore hearken unto that which I have observed out of other writers.
First of all, that there is such a beast in the world, both Pliny, Solinus, Diodourus, Aelianus, Lampridius, and others, do yeeld irrefragable testimony. Heliogabalus had one of them at Rome. Pompey the Great, in his publick spectacles did likewise produce a Rhinoceros (as Seneca writeth.) When Augustus rode triumphing for Cleopatra, he brought forth to the people a Sea-horse and a Rhinoceros, which was the first time that ever a Rhinocerot was seen at Rome (as Caelius writeth). Antonius Pius the Emperor, did give many gifts unto the people, amongst which were both Tygers and Rhinocerots (faith Julius Capitolinus in his life). Martial also celebrateth an excellent epigram of a Rhinocerot, which in the presence of Caesar Domitian did cast up a Bull into the air with his horn, as if he had been a Tennice ball, the Epigram is this:
O quam terribiles exarsit pronus in iras,
Quantus erat cornu, qui pila Taurus erat!
Lastly, to put it out of all question, that there is such a beast as this Rhinocerot, the picture or figure here expressed, was taken by Gesner from the beast alive at Lysbon in Portugale,
[1607: 596; 1658: 462]
before many witnesses, both merchants and others; so that we have the testimony both of antiquity and of the present age, for the testimony of the form and fashion of this beast, and that it is not the invention of man, but a work of God in nature, first created in the beginning of the world, and ever since continued to this present day.
Concerning the name of this beast, the Grecians because of the horn in his nose, call him Rhinoceros, that is, a nose-horned beast, and the Latins also have not altered that invention, for although there be many beasts that have but one horn, yet is there none that have that one horn growing out of their nose but this one alone: All the residue have the horn growing out at their forehead. There be some that have taken this Rhinoceros for the Monoceros the Unicorn, because of this horn, but they are deceived, taking the general for the special, which is a note of ignorance in them and occasion of errour unto others; yet it is better to take the Rhinoceros for the Monoceros, because there is nothing in the special which is not contained in the general, according to the maxime in logick, 'Nihil est in specie, quod non prius fuit in genere': and yet that is also ... considering that Monoceros is not only a word of generality for all one-horned beasts, but of a particularity a name for the Unicorn, whereby is meant the Indian Asse, as we shall shew in the story of the Unicorn.
This beast in the Hebrew is thought to be called Reem, or Karas, and therefore Munster so translateth it, Deut.33 'Tauri decor ejus, cornua Rhinocerotis cornua ejus, in eis ventilabit nationes ad summum usq; terrae.' His beauty is like the beauty of a bull, and his horns like the horns of a Rhinocerot, with the which he shall winnow the nations to the top of the hils.
And Tertullian writing against the Heretique Praxeas, doth so translate it. If a man compares together the Greek word Rhinoceros, and Reem, and Karas, or Rimna and Karas, he will easily think that either the Grecians have joyned together the two Hebrew words, as Rhinoceros quasi Reem Karas, or Rimna Karas; or else the Hebrews have parted asunder the Greek word, for Reem or Rimna may very well come of Rhino, and Karas of keros, yet herein I leave the readers to their own judgement. The Indians call this beast in their tongue, Scandabenamet, as Festus writeth, but I will leave the name and come to the description of it.
In quantity it is not much bigger then an Oryx: Pliny maketh it equal in length to an Elephant and some make it longer then an Elephant, but withall they say it is lower, and hath shorter legs. Strabo in his 16. book speaking of the Ethiopian Region, neer India, call these Rhinocerots, Aethiopian buls, and faith that they are bred only in that country, and by the relation of Artemidorus, who writeth thus; [Greek] That is to say, The Rhinocerotes are exceeded by the Elephants in length, but in height they almost equall them (as Artemidorus said) he saw by one that was at Alexandria, and the colour thereof was not like a box-tree, but rather like an Elephants, his quantity greater then a buls, or as the greatest bull, but his outward form and proportion like a wilde boars, especially in his mouth, except that out of his nose groweth a horn, harder than any bones, which he useth in stead of armes, even as a boar doth his teeth; he hath also two girdles upon his body like the wings of a dragon, coming from his back down to his belly, one toward his neck or mane, and the other toward his loins and hinderparts. This far Strabo.
Whereunto we may add the description of other parts out of Oppianus, Pliny, and Solinus. His colour like rinde or bark of a box-tree (which doth not differ much from an elephant) and on his forehead there grow haires which seem a little red, and his back is distinguished with certain purple spots upon a yellow ground. The skin is so firme and hard, that no dart is able to pierce it
[1607: 596; 1658: 463]
and upon it appear many divisions, like the shels of a tortoise set over the skales, having no hair upon the back. In like manner, the legs are scaled down to the hooves, which are parted into four distinct clawes; upon his nose there growth a hard and sharp horn, crooking a little towards the crown of his head, but not so high, flat and not round, so sharp and strong, 'Ut quicquid impetiret,
[1607: 597; 1658: 463]
aut ventilet, aut perforet, & ferum etiam & saxa transigat', faith Oppianus and Aelianus, that is, whatsoever it is set to, either it casteth it up into the air, or else boreth it through though it be iron or stones.
Eucherius saith, that the Rhinocerot hath two horns in his nose, but that is utterly false, as you may see in the picture. Although Martial seem to expresse so much in these verses:
Namq; gravem cornu gemino sic extulit ursum,
Jactat ut impositas Taurus in astra pilas.
The Rhinocerot cast up a bear into the air, even as a bull would do a ball which were laid upon his two horns: we shall not need to apply 'gemino cornu' to the bull, as Politianus doth, but rather take it figuratively for a strong horn; and if it must needs be literal, it is apparent by the picture that there is another little horn, not upon the nose, but upon the wither of the beast, I mean the top of his shoulders next to his neck, so that the error of Eucherius lyeth not in the number, but in the place; and that it may appear that this horn is not a faigned thing, pausanias above two thousand year ago writeth thus 'Rhinoceroti in summo naso cornu singulare est, & aliud supra ipsum non magnum in capite nullum.'
I do marvel how it came to passe that men which can mock and deride others cunningly should be called proverbially Nasuti homines, except the proverb were taken from the Rhinocerot, who by reason of his crooked horn is said to have a crooked nose; for indeed a deformed nose is more subject to derision then any other part or member of the body, which caused Martial to write thus:
Majores nunquam rhonchi: juvenesq; senesq;
Et pueri nasum rhinocerotis habent.
And thereupon Horace also faith thus:
----- Naso suspendis adunco.
Oppianus faith, that there was never yet any distinction of sexes in these Rhinocerotes: for all that ever were found were males and not females, but from hence let nobody gather that there are no females, for it were impossible that the breed should continue without females, and therefore Pliny and Solinus say, that they engender or admit copulation like elephants, camels, and lions.
When they are to fight they whet their horn upon a stone, and there is not only a discord betwixt these beasts and elephants for their food, but a naturall description and emnity, for it is confidently affirmed, that when the Rhinocerot which was at Lisborne was brought into the presence of an elephant, the elephant ran away from him. How and in what place he overcometh the elephant, we have shewed already in his story, namely how he fasteneth this horn in the soft part of the elephants belly. He is taken by the same means that the Unicorn is taken, for it is said by Albertus, Isidorus, and Alunnus, that above all other creatures they love virgins, and that unto them they will come be they never so wilde, and fall asleep before them, so being asleep, they are easily taken and carried away.
All the later Physitians do attribute the virtue of the Unicorns horn to the Rhinocerots horn, but they are deceived by imitation of Isidorus and Albertus: for there is none of the antient Grecians that have ever observed any medicines in the Rhinocerot. The Indians make bottles of their skins, wherein they put their Lycion, or succum medicatum, and therefore I will conclude this story with the riddle of Franciscus Niger, made upon the excellency of the horn that groweth upon the nose
Dio mihi quae superis sint acceptissima dona
Whereupon the answer is made in the next verse
Principium nasi Rhinocerotis amant.
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