# Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian/Frag. XV.B.

Fragm. XV.B.
Ælian, Hist. Anim. XVI. 20. 21. Conf. Fragm. XV. 2. 1.
Of some Beasts of India.
(20.) In certain districts of India (I speak of those which are most inland) they say there are inaccessible mountains infested by wild beasts, and which are also the haunts of animals like those of our own country except that they are wild; for even sheep, they say, run wild there, as well as dogs and goats and oxen, which roam about at their own pleasure, being independent and free from the dominion of the herdsman. That their number is beyond calculation is stated not only by writers on India, but also by the learned men of the country, among whom the Brachmans deserve to be reckoned, whose testimony is to the same effect. It is also said that there exists in India a one-homed animal, called by the natives the Kartazôn, It is of the size of a full-grown horse, and has a crest, and yellow hair soft as wool; It is furnished with very good legs and is very fleet. Its legs are jointless and formed like those of the elephant, and it has a tail like a swine's. A horn sprouts out from between its eyebrows, and this is not straight, but curved into the most natural wreaths, and is of a black colour. It is said to be extremely sharp, this horn. The animal, as I learn, has a voice beyond all example loud-ringing and dissonant. It allows other animals to approach it, and is good- ​natured towards them, though they say that with its congeners it is rather quarrelsome. The males are reported to have a natural propensity not only to fight among themselves, by butting with their horns, but to display a like animosity against the female, and to be so obstinate in their quarrels that they will not desist till a worsted rival is killed outright. But, again, not only is every member of the body of this animal endued with great strength, but such is the potency of its horn that nothing can withstand it. It loves to feed in secluded pastures, and wanders about alone, but at the rutting season it seeks the society of the female, and is then gentle towards her,—nay, the two even feed in company. The season being over and the female pregnant, the Indian Kartazôn again becomes ferocious and seeks solitude. The foals, it is said, are taken when quite young to the king of the Prasii, and are set to fight each other at the great public spectacles. No full-grown specimen is remembered to have ever been caught.
(21.) The traveller who crosses the mountains which skirt that frontier of India which is most inland meets, they say, with ravines which are clothed with very dense jungle, in a district called by the Indians Korouda. These ravines are said to be the haunts of a peculiar kind of animal shaped like a satyr, covered all over with shaggy hair, and having a tail like a horse's, depending from its rump. If these creatures are left unmolested, they keep within the coppices, living on the wild fruits; but should they hear the hunter's ​halloo and the baying of the hounds they dart up the precipices with incredible speed, for they are habituated to climbing the mountains. They defend themselves by rolling down stones on their assailants, which often kill those they hit. The most difficult to catch are those which roll the stones. Some are said to have been brought, though with difficulty and after long intervals, to the Prasii, but these were either suffering from diseases or were females heavy with young, the former being too weak to escape, and the latter being impeded by the burden of the womb.—Conf. Plin. Hist. Nat. VII. 2. 17.