[2] [THOMAS BOREMAN]: _A Description of Three Hundred Animals_ (1730), p. 6.
"Monosceros is an animal which has one horn on its head, Therefore it is so named; it has the form of a goat, It is caught by means of a virgin, now hear in what manner. When a man intends to hunt it and to take and ensnare it He goes to the forest where is its repair; There he places a virgin, with her breast uncovered, And by its smell the monosceros perceives it; Then it comes to the virgin, and kisses her breast, Falls asleep on her lap, and so comes to its death; The man arrives immediately, and kills it in its sleep, Or takes it alive and does as he likes with it. It signifies much, I will not omit to tell it you.
"Monosceros is Greek, it means _one horn_ in French: A beast of such a description signifies Jesus Christ; One God he is and shall be, and was and will continue so; He placed himself in the virgin, and took flesh for man's sake, And for virginity to show chastity; To a virgin he APPEARED and a virgin conceived him, A virgin she is, and will be, and will remain always. Now hear briefly the signification.
"This animal in truth signifies God; Know that the virgin signifies St Mary; By her breast we understand similarly Holy Church; And then by the kiss it ought to signify, That a man when he sleeps is in semblance of death; God slept as man, who suffered death on the cross, And his destruction was our redemption, And his labour our repose, Thus God deceived the Devil by a proper semblance; Soul and body were one, so was God and man, And this is the signification of an animal of that description."[1]
[1] _Popular Treatises on Science written during the Middle Ages in Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English_, ed. by THOMAS WRIGHT (Historical Society of Science, 1841), pp. 81-82.
This being the current belief concerning the symbolism of the unicorn in the Middle Ages, it is not surprising to find this animal utilised in church architecture; for an example see fig. 35.
The belief in the existence of these fabulous beasts may very probably have been due to the materialising of what were originally nothing more than mere arbitrary symbols, as I have already suggested of the phoenix.[1] Thus the account of the mantichora may, as BOSTOCK has suggested, very well be a description of certain hieroglyphic figures, examples of which are still to be found in the ruins of Assyrian and Persian cities. This explanation seems, on the whole, more likely than the alternative hypothesis that such beliefs were due to mal-observation; though that, no doubt, helped in their formation.
[1] "Superstitions concerning Birds."
