{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXVI/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXVI","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXXVI","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Fable/Chapter_XXXVI","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"XXXVI. MODERN MONSTERS \u2014 THE PH\u0152NIX \u2014 BASILISK \u2014 UNICORN \u2014 SALAMANDER\n\nMODERN MONSTERS\n\nThere is a set of imaginary beings which seem to have been the\nsuccessors of the \"Gorgons, Hydras, and Chimeras dire\" of the old\nsuperstitions, and, having no connection with the false gods of\nPaganism, to have continued to enjoy an existence in the popular\nbelief after Paganism was superseded by Christianity. They are\nmentioned perhaps by the classical writers, but their chief\npopularity and currency seem to have been in more modern times. We\nseek our accounts of them not so much in the poetry of the\nancients as in the old natural history books and narrations of\ntravellers. The accounts which we are about to give are taken\nchiefly from the Penny Cyclopedia.\n\nTHE PH\u0152NIX\n\nOvid tells the story of the Ph\u0153nix as follows: \"Most beings\nspring from other individuals; but there is a certain kind which\nreproduces itself. The Assyrians call it the Ph\u0153nix. It does not\nlive on fruit or flowers, but on frankincense and odoriferous\ngums. When it has lived five hundred years, it builds itself a\nnest in the branches of an oak, or on the top of a palm tree. In\nthis it collects cinnamon, and spikenard, and myrrh, and of these\nmaterials builds a pile on which it deposits itself, and dying,\nbreathes out its last breath amidst odors. From the body of the\nparent bird, a young Ph\u0153nix issues forth, destined to live as\nlong a life as its predecessor. When this has grown up and gained\nsufficient strength, it lifts its nest from the tree (its own\ncradle and its parent's sepulchre), and carries it to the city of\nHeliopolis in Egypt, and deposits it in the temple of the Sun.\"\n\nSuch is the account given by a poet. Now let us see that of a\nphilosophic historian. Tacitus says, \"In the consulship of Paulus\nFabius (A.D. 34) the miraculous bird known to the world by the\nname of the Phoenix, after disappearing for a series of ages,\nrevisited Egypt. It was attended in its flight by a group of\nvarious birds, all attracted by the novelty, and gazing with\nwonder at so beautiful an appearance.\" He then gives an account of\nthe bird, not varying materially from the preceding, but adding\nsome details. \"The first care of the young bird as soon as\nfledged, and able to trust to his wings, is to perform the\nobsequies of his father. But this duty is not undertaken rashly.\nHe collects a quantity of myrrh, and to try his strength makes\nfrequent excursions with a load on his back. When he has gained\nsufficient confidence in his own vigor, he takes up the body of\nhis father and flies with it to the altar of the Sun, where he\nleaves it to be consumed in flames of fragrance.\" Other writers\nadd a few particulars. The myrrh is compacted in the form of an\negg, in which the dead Phoenix is enclosed. From the mouldering\nflesh of the dead bird a worm springs, and this worm, when grown\nlarge, is transformed into a bird. Herodotus describes the bird,\nthough he says, \"I have not seen it myself, except in a picture.\nPart of his plumage is gold-colored, and part crimson; and he is\nfor the most part very much like an eagle in outline and bulk.\"\n\nThe first writer who disclaimed a belief in the existence of the\nPh\u0153nix was Sir Thomas Browne, in his \"Vulgar Errors,\" published\nin 1646. He was replied to a few years later by Alexander Ross,\nwho says, in answer to the objection of the Phoenix so seldom\nmaking his appearance, \"His instinct teaches him to keep out of\nthe way of the tyrant of the creation, man, for if he were to be\ngot at, some wealthy glutton would surely devour him, though there\nwere no more in the world.\"\n\nDryden in one of his early poems has this allusion to the Ph\u0153nix:\n\n\"So when the new-born Phoenix first is seen,\n\nHer feathered subjects all adore their queen,\n\nAnd while she makes her progress through the East,\n\nFrom every grove her numerous train's increased;\n\nEach poet of the air her glory sings,\n\nAnd round him the pleased audience clap their wings.\"\n\nMilton, in \"Paradise Lost,\" Book V., compares the angel Raphael\ndescending to earth to a Phoenix:\n\n\"... Down thither, prone in flight\n\nHe speeds, and through the vast ethereal sky\n\nSails between worlds and worlds, with steady wing,\n\nNow on the polar winds, then with quick fan\n\nWinnows the buxom air; till within soar\n\nOf towering eagles, to all the fowls he seems\n\nA Ph\u0153nix, gazed by all; as that sole bird\n\nWhen, to enshrine his relics in the sun's\n\nBright temple, to Egyptian Thebes he flies.\"\n\nTHE COCKATRICE, OR BASILISK\n\nThis animal was called the king of the serpents. In confirmation\nof his royalty, he was said to be endowed with a crest, or comb\nupon the head, constituting a crown. He was supposed to be\nproduced from the egg of a cock hatched under toads or serpents.\nThere were several species of this animal. One species burned up\nwhatever they approached; a second were a kind of wandering\nMedusa's heads, and their look caused an instant horror which was\nimmediately followed by death. In Shakspeare's play of \"Richard\nthe Third,\" Lady Anne, in answer to Richard's compliment on her\neyes, says, \"Would they were basilisk's, to strike thee dead!\"\n\nThe basilisks were called kings of serpents because all other\nserpents and snakes, behaving like good subjects, and wisely not\nwishing to be burned up or struck dead, fled the moment they heard\nthe distant hiss of their king, although they might be in full\nfeed upon the most delicious prey, leaving the sole enjoyment of\nthe banquet to the royal monster.\n\nThe Roman naturalist Pliny thus describes him: \"He does not impel\nhis body, like other serpents, by a multiplied flexion, but\nadvances lofty and upright. He kills the shrubs, not only by\ncontact, but by breathing on them, and splits the rocks, such\npower of evil is there in him.\" It was formerly believed that if\nkilled by a spear from on horseback the power of the poison\nconducted through the weapon killed not only the rider, but the\nhorse also. To this Lucan alludes in these lines:\n\n\"What though the Moor the basilisk hath slain,\n\nAnd pinned him lifeless to the sandy plain,\n\nUp through the spear the subtle venom flies,\n\nThe hand imbibes it, and the victor dies.\"\n\nSuch a prodigy was not likely to be passed over in the legends of\nthe saints. Accordingly we find it recorded that a certain holy\nman, going to a fountain in the desert, suddenly beheld a\nbasilisk. He immediately raised his eyes to heaven, and with a\npious appeal to the Deity laid the monster dead at his feet.\n\nThese wonderful powers of the basilisk are attested by a host of\nlearned persons, such as Galen, Avicenna, Scaliger, and others.\nOccasionally one would demur to some part of the tale while he\nadmitted the rest. Jonston, a learned physician, sagely remarks,\n\"I would scarcely believe that it kills with its look, for who\ncould have seen it and lived to tell the story?\" The worthy sage\nwas not aware that those who went to hunt the basilisk of this\nsort took with them a mirror, which reflected back the deadly\nglare upon its author, and by a kind of poetical justice slew the\nbasilisk with his own weapon.\n\nBut what was to attack this terrible and unapproachable monster?\nThere is an old saying that \"everything has its enemy\"--and the\ncockatrice quailed before the weasel. The basilisk might look\ndaggers, the weasel cared not, but advanced boldly to the\nconflict. When bitten, the weasel retired for a moment to eat some\nrue, which was the only plant the basilisks could not wither,\nreturned with renewed strength and soundness to the charge, and\nnever left the enemy till he was stretched dead on the plain. The\nmonster, too, as if conscious of the irregular way in which he\ncame into the world, was supposed to have a great antipathy to a\ncock; and well he might, for as soon as he heard the cock crow he\nexpired.\n\nThe basilisk was of some use after death. Thus we read that its\ncarcass was suspended in the temple of Apollo, and in private\nhouses, as a sovereign remedy against spiders, and that it was\nalso hung up in the temple of Diana, for which reason no swallow\never dared enter the sacred place.\n\nThe reader will, we apprehend, by this time have had enough of\nabsurdities, but still we can imagine his anxiety to know what a\ncockatrice was like. The following is from Aldrovandus, a\ncelebrated naturalist of the sixteenth century, whose work on\nnatural history, in thirteen folio volumes, contains with much\nthat is valuable a large proportion of fables and inutilities. In\nparticular he is so ample on the subject of the cock and the bull\nthat from his practice, all rambling, gossiping tales of doubtful\ncredibility are called cock and bull stories. Aldrovandus,\nhowever, deserves our respect and esteem as the founder of a\nbotanic garden, and as a pioneer in the now prevalent custom of\nmaking scientific collections for purposes of investigation and\nresearch.\n\nShelley, in his \"Ode to Naples,\" full of the enthusiasm excited by\nthe intelligence of the proclamation of a Constitutional\nGovernment at Naples, in 1820, thus uses an allusion to the\nbasilisk:\n\n\"What though Cimmerian anarchs dare blaspheme\n\nFreedom and thee? a new Actaeon's error\n\nShall theirs have been,--devoured by their own hounds!\n\nBe thou like the imperial basilisk,\n\nKilling thy foe with unapparent wounds!\n\nGaze on oppression, till at that dread risk,\n\nAghast she pass from the earth's disk.\n\nFear not, but gaze,--for freemen mightier grow,\n\nAnd slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe.\"\n\nTHE UNICORN\n\nPliny, the Roman naturalist, out of whose account of the unicorn\nmost of the modern unicorns have been described and figured,\nrecords it as \"a very ferocious beast, similar in the rest of its\nbody to a horse, with the head of a deer, the feet of an elephant,\nthe tail of a boar, a deep, bellowing voice, and a single black\nhorn, two cubits in length, standing out in the middle of its\nforehead.\" He adds that \"it cannot be taken alive;\" and some such\nexcuse may have been necessary in those days for not producing the\nliving animal upon the arena of the amphitheatre.\n\nThe unicorn seems to have been a sad puzzle to the hunters, who\nhardly knew how to come at so valuable a piece of game. Some\ndescribed the horn as movable at the will of the animal, a kind of\nsmall sword, in short, with which no hunter who was not\nexceedingly cunning in fence could have a chance. Others\nmaintained that all the animal's strength lay in its horn, and\nthat when hard pressed in pursuit, it would throw itself from the\npinnacle of the highest rocks horn foremost, so as to pitch upon\nit, and then quietly march off not a whit the worse for its fall.\n\nBut it seems they found out how to circumvent the poor unicorn at\nlast. They discovered that it was a great lover of purity and\ninnocence, so they took the field with a young virgin, who was\nplaced in the unsuspecting admirer's way. When the unicorn spied\nher, he approached with all reverence, couched beside her, and\nlaying his head in her lap, fell asleep. The treacherous virgin\nthen gave a signal, and the hunters made in and captured the\nsimple beast.\n\nModern zo\u00f6logists, disgusted as they well may be with such fables\nas these, disbelieve generally the existence of the unicorn. Yet\nthere are animals bearing on their heads a bony protuberance more\nor less like a horn, which may have given rise to the story. The\nrhinoceros horn, as it is called, is such a protuberance, though\nit does not exceed a few inches in height, and is far from\nagreeing with the descriptions of the horn of the unicorn. The\nnearest approach to a horn in the middle of the forehead is\nexhibited in the bony protuberance on the forehead of the giraffe;\nbut this also is short and blunt, and is not the only horn of the\nanimal, but a third horn, standing in front of the two others. In\nfine, though it would be presumptuous to deny the existence of a\none-horned quadruped other than the rhinoceros, it may be safely\nstated that the insertion of a long and solid horn in the living\nforehead of a horse-like or deer-like animal is as near an\nimpossibility as anything can be.\n\nTHE SALAMANDER\n\nThe following is from the \"Life of Benvenuto Cellini,\" an Italian\nartist of the sixteenth century, written by himself: \"When I was\nabout five years of age, my father, happening to be in a little\nroom in which they had been washing, and where there was a good\nfire of oak burning, looked into the flames and saw a little\nanimal resembling a lizard, which could live in the hottest part\nof that element. Instantly perceiving what it was, he called for\nmy sister and me, and after he had shown us the creature, he gave\nme a box on the ear. I fell a-crying, while he, soothing me with\ncaresses, spoke these words: 'My dear child, I do not give you\nthat blow for any fault you have committed, but that you may\nrecollect that the little creature you see in the fire is a\nsalamander; such a one as never was beheld before to my\nknowledge.' So saying he embraced me, and gave me some money.\"\n\nIt seems unreasonable to doubt a story of which Signor Cellini was\nboth an eye and ear witness. Add to which the authority of\nnumerous sage philosophers, at the head of whom are Aristotle and\nPliny, affirms this power of the salamander. According to them,\nthe animal not only resists fire, but extinguishes it, and when he\nsees the flame charges it as an enemy which he well knows how to\nvanquish.\n\nThat the skin of an animal which could resist the action of fire\nshould be considered proof against that element is not to be\nwondered at. We accordingly find that a cloth made of the skin of\nsalamanders (for there really is such an animal, a kind of lizard)\nwas incombustible, and very valuable for wrapping up such articles\nas were too precious to be intrusted to any other envelopes. These\nfire-proof cloths were actually produced, said to be made of\nsalamander's wool, though the knowing ones detected that the\nsubstance of which they were composed was asbestos, a mineral,\nwhich is in fine filaments capable of being woven into a flexible\ncloth.\n\nThe foundation of the above fables is supposed to be the fact that\nthe salamander really does secrete from the pores of his body a\nmilky juice, which when he is irritated is produced in\nconsiderable quantity, and would doubtless, for a few moments,\ndefend the body from fire. Then it is a hibernating animal, and in\nwinter retires to some hollow tree or other cavity, where it coils\nitself up and remains in a torpid state till the spring again\ncalls it forth. It may therefore sometimes be carried with the\nfuel to the fire, and wake up only time enough to put forth all\nits faculties for its defence. Its viscous juice would do good\nservice, and all who profess to have seen it, acknowledge that it\ngot out of the fire as fast as its legs could carry it; indeed,\ntoo fast for them ever to make prize of one, except in one\ninstance, and in that one the animal's feet and some parts of its\nbody were badly burned.\n\n\u00a0\n\nDr. Young, in the \"Night Thoughts,\" with more quaintness than good\ntaste, compares the sceptic who can remain unmoved in the\ncontemplation of the starry heavens to a salamander unwarmed in\nthe fire:\n\n\"An undevout astronomer is mad!\n\n\u2022\u2022\u2022\u2022\"O, what a genius must inform the skies!\n\nAnd is Lorenzo's salamander-heart\n\nCold and untouched amid these sacred fires?\"","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter XXXVI","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2738}