"If magic cannot save a unicorn, then what use is it?" --- Petter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn. Why have legends about animals been passed down in the human world for thousands of years, yet never grown stale? Beagle's incisive language may be the best explanation. Almost every culture is inlaid with bizarre and motley animal legends, mythical monsters, beautiful beasts, and true stories of flesh and blood.
---The strange unicorn The earliest unicorn appeared in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. This horse with a single horn on its forehead was called "re'em", first translated as "monokeros", and only later evolved into the English 'unicorn'. In the real world, the narwhal may be the closest relative we can find to this mythical animal, though the narwhal lives in the distant deep sea rather than among mountains and grasslands. The rhinoceros that lives on land also has a sharp horn on its forehead, but unfortunately its appearance is far too different.
The unicorn of legend is a graceful creature, a small horse white all over, nimble and agile, with a magical horn on its forehead. It is sometimes depicted as female, gentle and modest.
In 398 BC, the ancient Greek historian Ctesias wrote in his book: "Unicorns live in India, on the South Asian subcontinent. They are a kind of wild ass, about the size of a horse, or even larger. Their bodies are snow-white, their heads are dark red, they have a pair of dark blue eyes, and from the center of the forehead grows a horn about half a meter long." This mysterious horn was then passed down for several centuries. Snow-white at the base, black in the middle, bright red at the tip, the unicorn's sharp horn possessed strange magic power. Powder filed from the horn could cure every poison; by taking the powder one could ward off disease, be immune to all poisons, and even bring the dead back to life. Its magic drove people mad over this strange horn. Every noble wanted a wine cup made from a unicorn horn, every hunter dreamed that one day a unicorn would fall into his trap.
In medieval myths and legends, unicorns roamed freely in the mountains and wilderness, and they were very friendly toward humans. In the stories, the pure and kind unicorn is often lured by the alluring body fragrance of a young girl and falls into a terrible trap. The "pure" maiden savagely cuts off its miraculous horn, and the unicorn, having lost its magic power, can only submit to the hunters' merciless slaughter.
弄花香满衣,掬水月在手。
明月鹭鸟飞, 芦花白马走。
我自一过后,野渡现横舟。
青云碧空在,净瓶水不流。
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