Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-01-18
LEGEN DEVICES
HOW THEY HAVE APPEARED IN
HERALDRY.
Old Beliefs Concerning the Unicorn,
Phoenix, Hasilisk and Other
XXI
Beasts and Birds.
e a..
From the Observation-Disclosures

A~AAy "AAeCTS on natural history SUI.
1ects make mention Of many strange
creatures that never could have existed
save In the superstitious mind of the age
in which they wrote, and of the many
that did exist the accounts of their struc-
ture and habits are so ludicrous that one
may really wonder II it was possible,
even In the middle ages, that people could
De SO credulous. Many Of these strangely
CARRIED records of the animal world were
no doubt due to travellers tales, and prob
aply mad a certain foundation In fact;
out 1t Is difficult, indeed, to account for
the creation of such things as the phoe-
NIX, the cockatrice, the wyvern, the GRIT
mn and the dragon. The belief In the ex-
istence OF the unicorn may have orig
mated from the fact of some of the early
African travellers meeting with certain
ante!opes that had lost a horn, for it is a
pecuLarlty with most antelopes that their
horns are never shed, and if injured or
broken OH never grow again.
Inc morn, growing out of the forehead
petwlxt the eyelids, is neither light nor
noilow nor yet smooth like other horns,
put nara as iron, rough as any file, re-
vowed into many plights. sharper than
any uaTt, straight and not crooked. and
everywhere black except at the point"
bartholomew asserted that there were
De feasible If this creature had been ere
ated from those horned beasts that had
ac:c; 1,, lost one of the horns.
mere De many kind of uniforms, for
ana Aegloceron. And Monoceron is
wild beast. shaped like to the horse in
pody and to the hart in head, and in the
Ieet TO the elephant, and in the tail to
he-poar, ana hath heavy lowing, and an
morn strutting in the middle of the fore
mead OF two cubits long. And in Ind be
some one-horned asses; and such an ass
Is called monoceros and is less bold and
An no1n
ceron Is a manner of unicorn that is a lit
Tie peast IKE to kid. Also in Ind be
one-horned oxen with white specks and
bones. and with thick hoofs as horses
have"
Pliny and Phoenix.
How the phoenix was called into being
1t would be impossible to hazard a guess
1t was popularity supposed that there was
only one such creature existing in the
whoIe universe and that there was but
one tree In which it built it's nest We
md mention Of the phoenix as far back
as Phny, who says: "Howbeit, 1 cannot
tell what to make of him: and first of an
whether 1t be a tale or no. that is never
put one of them in the whole world. and
the same not commonly SEEN"
IN the hfteenth century we find Bar
tn01omeW writing of this imaginary bird:
Phoenix is bird, and there is but one
OF that Kind In all the wide world; there
1ore leWd men wonder thereof. Phoenix is
a pro without make (mate), and liveth
three hundred or five hundred years: when
the which years be passed. she feeleth her
default and feebleness and maketh a nest
or right sweet smelling sticks, that be full
dTy, ana IN summer when the western wind
bioWeth. the sticks and the nest be set on
nre with burning heat of the sun. and
burneth strongly
The bird then allows itself to be reduced
to ashes in this flre-on this point all the
writer's agree-and in due course rises again
from the ashes in the full glory of renewed
youth. and is the most fairest bird that
is, most like to the peacock in feathers,
and loveth wilderness, and gathereth his
meat or clean green's and fruits"
The Cockatrice.
The basilisk. OF .cockatrice, was reputed
to be some strange mixture Of a bird and
serpent. able to slay with his breath and
his sight, which power was accredited by
some to dragons:
Make me not sighted like the baslisk:
l have lookd on thousands, who have sped
the better s.
By my regard but killd none so.
WINTERS Tale" l. 2
This fearful creature was said TO be
Matched by a serpent out of a cocks egg.
and to this supposed fact it owed it's form.
In body and head 1t was shaped as a com
mon farmyard rooster. Its head is very
pointed, its eyes red, its color inclining to
black yellow; it has a tail like viper, but
Tie rest VI ltS UOQy Is ike a COCK ("HOr-
tus Sanitatis.")
Even as lion is afraid of cock. so
Is the basilisk for he is not only afraid of
his sight, but almost dead when he heareth
him crow. 1t is a question whether the
cockatrice die by sight of himself. Once
our natica was full of cockatrices, and a
certain man did destroy them by going up
and down in glass, whereby their own
shapes were reflected upon their own faces.
and SO they died. (Topsells History of
Serpents.")
From this creature, which survives to the
present day in company with many other
strange monsters, only in heraldry, the
town of Basic, in Eitzerland, is supposed
to derive Its name for on that site legend
has it that one of these DISTINGUISHING
sight-slaying basilisks was destroyed by
gallant knight.
The wyvern, referred to above is depicted
as strange blend of dragon ana a SER
pent. and it figures as "a supporter on the
coat-of-arms of more than one of the mem.
bers of the House of Lords.