ra. It is there said that the wild horse, the argali, and the
kio-touan, are animals foreign to China; that they belong to Tartary, and
that they use the horns of the latter to make the bows called unicorn
bows.

The Chinese, Mahometans, and Mongol historians agree in the following
tradition, relative to a fact which took place in 1224, when
Tchinggiskhan was preparing to attack Hindostan. "This conqueror having
subdued Thibet," says the Mongol history, "set out to penetrate into
Enedkek (India.) As he was ascending Mount Djadanaring, he perceived a
wild beast approaching him, of the species called serou, which has but
one horn on the top of the head. This beast knelt thrice before the
monarch, as if to show him respect. Every one being astonished at this
event, the monarch exclaimed: 'The Empire of Hindostan is, they say, the
birth-place of the majestic Buddhas and the Buddhistavas, and also of the
powerful Bogdas or princes of antiquity. What then can be the meaning of
this dumb animal saluting me like a human being?' Having thus spoke, he
returned to his country." Although this circumstance is fabulous, it
demonstrates, nevertheless, the existence of a one-horned animal on the
upper mountains of Thibet. There are further, in this country, places
deriving their name from the great number of these animals, which, in
fact, live there in herds; for example, the district of Serou-Dziong,
which means, the village of the land of unicorns, and which is situate in
the eastern part of the province of Kham, towards the frontier of China.

A Thibetian manuscript, which the late Major Lattre had an opportunity of
examining, calls the unicorn the one-horned tsopo. A horn of this animal
was sent to Calcutta: it was fifty centimetres {246} in length, and
twelve centimetres in circumference from the root; it grew smaller and
smaller, and terminated in a point. It was almost straight, black, and
somewhat flat at the sides. It had fifteen rings, but they were only
prominent on one side.

Mr. Hodgson, an English resident in Nepaul, has at length achieved the
possession of a unicorn, and has put beyond doubt the question relative
to the existence of this species of antelope, called tchirou, in Southern
Thibet, which borders on Nepaul. It is the same word with serou, only
pronounced differently, according to the varying dialects of the north
and of the south.

The skin and the horn, sent to Calcutta by Mr. Hodgson, belonge