Fairies, Dragons & Unicorns in Folklore

Fairy Mythology: Facts, History, and Astonishing Characteristics

A particular category of magical beings with roots in European mythology includes fairy mythology featuring the mythological figure commonly referred to as a “fairy.” The word “Faerie” is another spelling variation of the same word. Fay or Fae is the plural form. Here are some facts about this well-known creature.

Fairy Facts

Fairies have historically been associated with wicked or cruel behaviour. They allegedly traded human infants for their kids at times. They are frequently described as possessing wings. They might be as big as humans or as tiny as pixies. Fairies have been depicted in a broad range of ways throughout European literature and tradition. Some are stunning, while others are abhorrent. Others combine both traits. Fairies are typically thought to be feminine in appearance today. They are lovely and frequently resemble butterflies or other flying insects in their wings.

There is no single origin for fairies. They are the result of the combination of many different folk beliefs. According to some folk ideas, these entities are demonised angels or demons, similar to the Christian view. They were thought to be inferior deities or spirits by pre-Christian Europeans and pagans. Fairy-believing declined as Christianity became more widespread. They were frequently merely considered to be another species of beings that coexisted with humans. Others believed them to be nature spirits, early human ancestors, or even ghosts of the dead.

Fairies’ Superpowers

Communication with Animals: Numerous fairies possess the ability to comprehend the feelings of animals or even to speak with them. They can also rely on animals to defend themselves.
Flight: While well-known modern fairies like Disney’s Tinker Bell are able to fly, historically, few fairies are able to fly, and they are not usually endowed with wings. Flight is not typically employed as a primary mode of transportation but rather as a measure of protection.
Healing: Fairies have the ability to heal. They have the power to heal both plants and people. They have the power to heal the body as well as the spirit.
Photo kinesis: Fairies have influence over nature because they can manipulate light from the sun. Some people are also capable of producing light from within their own bodies.
Shapeshifting: Fairies have the ability to regulate and modify their looks. They might even resemble people. In connection with that, if a wicked fairy uses the ability of Glamour to make itself appear attractive and a human discovers the truth, the fairy will never be able to conceal its true appearance from that human again.
Invisibility: Fairies have the ability to modify how they seem to others as well as their own level of visibility. Even some fairies have the power to turn into shadows. Although the majority of fairies are typically difficult to be seen by humans. People can become invisible thanks to gift-giving fairies.
Fairies frequently possess superhuman agility that allows them to avoid harm and have the capacity to make people lucky or unlucky. Some have the capacity to temporarily bestow onto humans the ability to view the secret world of fairies or predict the future. They also mend in a day and are almost indestructible. The majority of fairies also have improved senses.

The Origins of Fairies

The history and origins of Fairies, Goblins and Hobgoblins

Most of us think of fairies as tiny creatures, flitting about on gossamer wings, waving a magic wand, but history and folklore tell a different tale.

When belief in fairies was common most people didn’t like to mention them by name and so referred to them by other names: the Little People or the Hidden People.

Many explanations have been given for a belief in fairies. Some say that they are like ghosts, spirits of the dead, or were fallen angels, neither bad enough for Hell nor good enough for Heaven.

There are hundreds of different kinds of fairies – some are minute creatures, others grotesque – some can fly, and all can appear and disappear at will.

The oldest fairies on record in England were first described by the historian Gervase of Tilbury in the 13th century.

Brownies and other hobgoblins (pictured below) are guardian fairies. They are useful ones and do housework and odd jobs around the house. In Aberdeenshire, Scotland they are hideous to look at, they have no separate toes or fingers and in the Scottish Lowlands they have a hole instead of a nose!

Banshees are less common and more sinister, they usually only appear to foretell a tragedy. In Highland tradition the Washer-by-the-Ford, a web footed, one nostrilled, buck toothed hag is only seen washing blood-stained clothes when men are about to meet a violent death!

Goblins and Bug-a-boos are always malignant – avoid them if possible!

Most of the nature fairies are perhaps descendents of pre-Christian gods and goddesses or are the spirits of trees and streams.

Black Annis, a blue-faced hag, haunts the Dane Hills in Leicestershire and Gentle Annie who governs storms in the Scottish lowlands, are perhaps descended from the Celtic goddess Danu, mother of Ireland’s cave fairies. Mermaids and mermen, river spirits and spirits of pools, are the most common nature fairies

Read More – The Origins of Fairies

The Ancient Faeries of Northern Britain

Not only has our perception of fairies altered over time, but the types of fairies we might encounter change geographically too. From little old grumpy men helping in northern households to piskies wreaking havoc in Cornwall (read next week to find out more about these little mischievous creatures), fairies differ from region to region.

Based on her thorough research, Rosalind looks at the varying nature of fairies and encounters with them in Northern Britain. She explores the many tales that have been told over time.

Jade Westerman, Exhibitions Assistant at Palace Green Library

What does the word ‘fairy’ make you think of? Twee, Disney-style little girls with wings and cute faces? Well, if you’d lived in Scotland or northern England in the 19th Century or earlier, you might well have taken a different view; for serious belief in these otherworldly creatures was once firmly engrained in popular consciousness. And it wasn’t just children who believed in them, but mature men and women too.

A few years ago, I did some in-depth research into old faery beliefs for my book Faeries, Elves & Goblins: the Old Stories. The ancient lore I unearthed was very different from that portrayed in modern children’s books. This is how I summed up my discoveries in the book’s introduction:

They are older than history and bitter-sweet as memories. They dwell under the ground, inside the hill, through the passage, beneath the water and beyond the mist.

They are both male and female, young and old, immortal. They may grow tall as kings or stay small as sucklings. They are of the earth yet unearthly. Some are beautiful, angelic and light as gossamer; others are wizened, moth-eaten, prickly old men. They dress in caps and feathers, breeches and gowns: green, red, white or the colours of dust. They spin and weave, bake bread, work metal. Their music is like honey spiked with sorrow.

They are passionate, vengeful and cunning, yet neither good nor evil. They are secretive and sly, creators of illusion, shapeshifters. They fly with magic cap or powerful words, astride twigs and stems, or dizzily on gusts of wind. They can fade, turn invisible and vanish.

Many country people claimed to have seen real, live faeries in the wild. Here’s a good example, simplified from an account originally recorded in dialect from an anonymous elderly Scottish woman in the 19th Century:

…we heard the loud laugh of folk riding, with the jingling of bridles, and the clanking of hoofs…We looked round and round and soon saw it was the Faerie Folks Rade. We cowered down till they passed by. A beam of light was dancing over them, more bonnie than moonshine: they were all wee, wee folk with green scarfs on, but one that rode foremost, and that one was a good deal larger than the rest with bonnie long hair, bound about with a strap which glinted like stars. They rode on fine wee white horses with strange, long swooping tails and manes hung with whistles that the wind played on.

Highly educated people believed in faeries too, like the Galloway doctor who, travelling a lonely road late one night, met a host of Faeries trooping towards him. When he nervously stood aside for them, one cried: ‘Open up and let the honest doctor through!’ – and the procession parted in the middle, the Faeries bowing as he passed. On the English side of the border, a Northumberland farmer out at midnight was lured by music to a hillside door through which he saw faeries enjoying a banquet. In County Durham, a woman came face to face with a faery sitting on a stone near her house, and brought her inside for a good meal. A Yorkshireman saw scores of Faeries dancing in the moonlight and snatched one into his pocket to show his children; but it had flown by the time he reached home.

DRAGONS AND THEIR ORIGINS

Where did the dragon myth originate, and why are dragon stories so widespread across at least two continents? Carolyne Larrington, Professor of medieval European literature at the University of Oxford, investigates.

Dragons feature in legend and folklore all across Britain, as well as Europe and Asia. They take many different forms and have varying characteristics: they can be a mild nuisance or a deadly peril; they may fly and breathe fire, or creep along spouting poison.

Various theories have been put forward to explain the popularity of the dragon legend. Recently it’s been suggested that the rainbow might have inspired tales of giant serpents. The Rainbow Serpent is indeed a creator-god in some Aboriginal Australian mythologies; when a rainbow appears in the sky, it’s said that the Serpent is moving between water-holes. Its capacity to find water is crucial to human survival in traditional societies, a function that connects it to the East Asian dragons. In fact, serpents are universally seen in the world’s major mythological cycles as having particular wisdom about the secrets that lie hidden beneath the earth’s surface. They can vanish into dark holes and reappear elsewhere, wriggling through the smallest chinks and crevices. Their habit of shedding their skins can signify the new knowledge they have acquired in the mysterious depths underground.

Australian Aboriginal art: Namaroto spirits and the Rainbow Serpent Burlung, as depicted in a replica at the Anthropos Pavilion

in Brno, Czechia.

Indo-European legends, shared across Europe, the Near East and India, have a recurring story-pattern: that of the monster and the hero. In these tales, a fearsome monster, very often in serpent form, threatens human livelihoods by devouring animals and people – often young, marriageable girls. This provokes economic, political and population crises. The hero frequently needs supernatural help – a flying horse like Pegasus, or a magic sword – or he possesses superhuman strength, like the Greek hero Herakles (Hercules in Roman myth) who battled against the multi-headed Hydra in the marshes of Lerna. The monster is not always draconian in form, but it very often has serpent characteristics, perhaps dwelling in the sea, like the sea-monster that Perseus turns into stone with the aid of the Gorgon’s head when he rescued Andromeda. Or it may lurk deep within some rocky chasm like the Python, slain by the god Apollo with his arrows. This archetype symbolises the eternal battle between good and evil, but more specifically such stories are often used to explain how different peoples were able to move into new areas by conquering difficult territory and finding clever ways to overcome natural perils to make homes for themselves.

European dragons come in two kinds. The first is the northern, Germanic dragon that flies through the air on powerful wings and breathes fire when provoked. It loves gold and other kinds of treasure; where it finds a hidden hoard it moves in and sleeps on top of it. The fiery, flying dragon has been connected with the appearance of comets. The dragons that were seen flying over Northumbria in 793 (according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) were most likely a comet of some kind, though they were interpreted at the time as presaging the ferocious attack of the Vikings on the monastery at Lindisfarne. The fire-drake is best known from literary sources, such as the Old English epic poem Beowulf, composed quite likely in the 8th century and written down in the early 11th century. This dragon found a treasure-hoard hidden in an ancient barrow and moved in. When a slave sneaked into the cave and stole a goblet, the enraged monster burned down Beowulf’s great hall and harried his people. The ageing hero went to fight the monster alone, armed with a special iron shield, but the monster seized his neck in its poisonous jaws. Beowulf’s kinsman Wiglaf hurried to help him, and together they slew the creature. Beowulf died of his injuries and had a splendid funeral. The dragon was tipped unceremoniously over a sea-cliff.

The Dragon in Folklore & Legend

The dragon is a legendary creature, which is prevalent to the mythic culture of many countries. Britain, with its diverse history, has a tradition of dragons stemming from Saxon, Celtic and Norse influences, as well as those from further afield. What follows is a brief overview of the dragon in legend and folklore, as well as some theories as to what the dragon may signify.

The Worm
The most common dragon to appear in British folklore, and perhaps the earliest root of the dragon legend is the worm (wurm), which stems from Norse influences and the Anglo Saxon word Wyrm or vurm. In appearance the worm is wingless and scaly with no arms or legs, very similar to a gigantic snake but with the added dread of poisonous breath, and the ability to rejoin after being cut into pieces. These great worms were often the metal to test the courage of aspiring heroes. The Lambton worm () was one such creature as was the dragon of Loschy Hill. As well as being the making of young heroes, dragons often have other similarities within folklore. They are often associated with the guarding of treasure (or captive maidens), and with sacred wells, hillocks, springs and deep caves. This may have some relation to ancient religious beliefs and mythic patterns, and esoterically dragons have been linked with the belief in earth energies and chthonic subterranean forces.

The Dragon and Early Christianity
One pattern that can easily be gleaned from dragon folklore is the early struggle between Paganism – symbolised as a dragon – and Christianity. A carving of a conquered dragon can be found on the font of the church at Avebury, that great temple to ancient religion. Another reflection of this battle can be seen in the early saints penchant for dragon slaying. Saint Sampson of Cornwall is said to have led a dragon from its lair in a moorland cave, to its death over the rugged sea cliff on the peninsula; St Serf is said to have destroyed a dragon living in Dragon Hole in Kinnoul, Perthshire in the 6th century. Other saints dealt with dragons less severely, St Petroc whispered a prayer in to the ear of a Cornish dragon, after which it swam out to sea to new lands; and St Carantoc led another dragon away from its swamp abode to the wild places where few ventured. Even local priests had the power to banish dragons, at Winlatter rocks in Derbyshire, a priest banished a dragon with such force that his footprints were left entrenched in the solid rock. This dragon retired to the Blue John mines where his sulphurous breath warms some of the local springs. The association of dragons with the early Saints and Christianity may be due to the fact that the dragon was often analogous with the Devil in some folk tales, and the relation between dragons and the serpent in the bible would not have been overlooked.

Other Dragons
In the south of England the name for a pool dwelling worm was a Knucker, they lived in deep pools known as Knucker Holes. One such lair was the Knucker Hole near Lyminster church in Sussex, a deep pool once thought to be bottomless. The dragon that dwelled here was slain by a conquering hero, who claimed the hand of the King of Sussex’s daughter for his troubles.

The dragon that is most often depicted in art and visualized by most people is the heraldic dragon, which is fire breathing, has legs and arms equipped with sharp talons, and wings like those of a bat. This is a later rendering of the dragon, and may date from influences brought over by the Romans. It may have also developed from the Wyvern, which had the legs of and wings of an eagle and the body of a serpent.

Dragons: A brief history of the mythical, fire-breathing beasts

Dragons have appeared in numerous fantasy stories from The Hobbit to Game of Thrones, but just where do these mythical monsters come from?

(Image credit: Getty/ MassanPH)

Dragons are among the most popular and enduring of the world’s mythological creatures, believed to have been real for centuries.

Dragon tales are known in many cultures, from the Americas to Europe, and from India to China. They have a long and rich history in many forms and continue to populate our books, films and television shows, as brave heroes routinely fight to slay the beasts.

It’s not clear when or where stories of dragons first emerged, but the huge, flying serpents were described at least as early as the age of the ancient Greeks and Sumerians. According to Scott G. Bruce in his introduction to “The Penguin Book of Dragons” (Penguin Classics, 2021), “In the ancient world they took the form of enormous serpents, ready to crush with their coils and kill with their venomous breath.” For much of history dragons were thought of as being like any other mythical animal: sometimes useful and protective, other times harmful and dangerous.

That changed when Christianity spread across the world; dragons took on a decidedly sinister interpretation and came to represent Satan. In medieval times, most people who heard anything about dragons knew them from the Bible, and it’s likely that most Christians at the time believed in the literal existence of dragons. After all, Leviathan — the massive monster described in detail in the Book of Job, chapter 41 — sounds like a dragon:

“Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. Its breath sets coals ablaze, and flames dart from its mouth.”

The belief in dragons was based not just in legend but also in hard evidence, or at least that’s what people thought, long ago. For millennia no one knew what to make of the giant bones that were occasionally unearthed around the globe, and dragons seemed a logical choice for people who had no knowledge of dinosaurs.

Serpents and dragons in British folklore

It is perhaps unsurprising that Britain can lay claim to a number of ‘worm’ or ‘dragon’ legends, given its lands have been settled at various times by peoples to whom the imagery of such creatures has had deep symbolic meaning, not only to the Britons, Gauls and Irish of the Bronze and Iron Ages, but also of the ‘Romanised’ continentals and Germanic peoples who mixed with them, reinforcing and modifying the indigenous ideas of that locality. Through further contact with the East via Byzantium and the Crusades, new style and detail became added to indigenous stories which changed how people imagined these creatures looked and behaved.

The folktales and legends of old Britain were, before the 17thC era when state Protestantism began to encourage widespread literacy, transmitted orally largely in the form of either stories or ballads. Many of those in song form survive because they were published from the late 1600s onward in the form of ‘broadsheet-‘ or ‘broadside-ballads’ – popular songs whose lyrics were printed in the early newspapers.

Dragons or Serpents?

What we think of today as a dragon – a quadrupedal,winged, fire-breathing giant lizard – is in fact a ‘cultural chimera’ created by the fusion of Oriental and Occidental myths. It began to appear principally in the middle ages under the influence of Byzantine contact with the east.

The word ‘dragon’ is originally Greek: The word δράκων (drákōn) means ‘gazer’, and was applied to monstrous serpentine (and usually aquatic) creatures. In the mythology of the ancient Greeks, such fantastical ‘chimeric’ beasts were created by the Titans, in the distant ‘Kronian Age’ before the Olympian gods, and typically dwelled in the mysterious places at the far reach of the world-river ‘Okeanos’ – a metaphor for the most distant place a mortal could travel. They also appear as adversaries for both gods and heroes, again typically in far-off lands: Colchis, Libya, etc. Ancient Greek dragons were exotic, monstrous and liminal. They represented the cosmic forces of destruction and chaos – necessary parts of the natural order, continually attacking new growth and life. To the ancient Egyptians, the giant serpent Apep (Apophis) embodied the same aspect of cosmic chaos, being the challenger to the personified luminary, Ra, at the far and mysterious extent of the sun’s travels ‘beyond the horizons’ in the underworld. His depiction as the Ouroboros serpent (devouring its own tail) went on to influence the symbolism of the mysticism in the Greco-Roman world. The ‘barbarian’ Celts of Europe’s Bronze and Iron Ages were also fond of the imagery of serpents, which pervaded their art and stylization. Contrary to popular beliefs, dragon imagery as we would understand it is not readily identifiable from the artistic record of these peoples before they ‘took the king’s sestertius’ and Romanised.

St George and the Dragon:

The prototype for many British ‘dragon’ tales must surely lie in the Romance literature era, during which time popular and courtly culture in northern Europe was dominated by a strong tradition of storytelling, the most notable of which were the Arthurian cycle of tales. One of the most popular books of that era was the religiously-themed ‘Legenda Aurea’ (‘Golden Legends’) compiled by James (Jacob) of Voraigne c.1260CE. It was a collection of the tales of Christendom’s most popular religious heroes – the Saints – drawn from regions as far as Byzantium and beyond in the east to Ireland in the far west. Among these was contained an account of the legend of St George and the Dragon, originating apparently from Cappadocia (modern Turkey) and Georgia, albeit with obvious influences from the ‘Thracian Hero’ statuary traditions of the late-Roman era Balkans and Asia Minor.

The Unicorn Myth

he unicorn, a mythical creature popularized in European folklore, has captivated the human imagination for over 2,000 years. For most of that time, well into the Middle Ages, people also believed them to be real. The roots of the unicorn myth date back at least as far as 400 BCE, when the Greek historian Ctesias first documented a unicorn-like animal in his writings on the region of India. Descriptions of the unicorn can be traced throughout the following centuries in the writings of other prominent historical figures, such as Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and even Julius Caesar, who claimed that similar animals could be found in the ancient and vast Hercynian Forest of Germany.

These early accounts describe the unicorn as ferocious, swift, and impossible to capture, with a magical horn capable of healing numerous ailments. Over time, the unicorn acquired additional significance as a symbol of purity, protection, and medieval chivalry. It even developed religious connotations, sometimes employed as an allegory for Christ. During the Middle Ages, unicorn imagery and descriptions were commonly included in medieval bestiaries, and the unicorn became a popular motif in medieval art. Perhaps the most famous example is The Unicorn Tapestries, currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Cloisters in New York City. Today, the unicorn can still be found everywhere (and nowhere): it remains a ubiquitous symbol that pervades popular culture from children’s movies to Silicon Valley slang for start-ups valued at over one billion dollars. Though we may no longer believe in the existence of unicorns, the unicorn myth remains very much alive and well.

Early Descriptions of a One-Horned Beast

The earliest written description of a unicorn is attributed to Ctesias in 400 BCE. A Greek physician and historian who served in the court of both Darius II (r. 424-404 BCE) and Artaxerxes II (r. 404-358 BCE) of the Achaemenid Empire, Ctesias wrote Indica, the first book in Greek on the regions of India, Tibet, and the Himalayas. Having never been to that region himself, however, he relied on information brought to him by travelers along the Silk Road. Indica was both widely read and quoted; it was also ridiculed for some of its more fanciful descriptions. It survives today only in the work of others, including fragments summarized by Photius in the 9th century CE. The first mention of a unicorn-like animal appears in the 25th fragment:

There are in India certain wild asses which are as large as horses and even larger. Their bodies are white, their heads dark red, and their eyes dark blue. They have a horn in the middle of the forehead that is one cubit [about a foot and a half] in length; the base of this horn is pure white…the upper part is sharp and of a vivid crimson, and the middle portion is black. Those who drink from these horns, made into drinking vessels, are not subject, they say, either to convulsions or to the falling sickness. Indeed they are immune even to poisons if, either before or after swallowing such, they drink wine, water, or anything else from these beakers… (Freeman, 14)

This colorful animal that Ctesias describes is most likely a fanciful rendition of the Indian rhinoceros. The rhinoceros horn was considered in India to have healing properties and was sometimes made into drinking vessels decorated with three bands of color. Even so, the belief in the magical healing powers of the unicorn horn was to become an integral component of the unicorn myth.

Read More – The Unicorn Myth

What is a Unicorn?

In the depths of the forest a creature emerges from behind a tree. Beautiful in radiance and with a shining white coat of fur, this awe-inspiring creature trots briskly between the trees. One single horn protrudes from the center of its head, standing tall and proud. You try to chase after it, but give up after a short while, knowing that you’ll never be able to overcome the prideful beast. The unicorn is too fast to be caught by man.

A unicorn is a legendary creature that is known to possess magical abilities. Though in modern day this creature is thought to be nothing more than a myth, ancient cultures wrote of it as a real animal. In fact, it was included in many natural history books of the time.

The most popular depictions of the unicorn are known by Greek and European accounts and mythology, though there are similar unicorn-like creatures that have been recorded throughout the world. There were many interpretations of the beast – some saw it as the incarnation of purity and grace. Some believed that the horn of the beast had the power to provide cures for sickness and the ability to serve as an antidote for poison.

Because of its supposed magical abilities, the unicorn and its horn was greatly sought after by anyone with means in the early ages. It was common for those of great wealth or nobility to attempt to procure a horn to protect themselves against attacks or to extend their lifespan in general. In fact, many ‘horns’ were sold by traders who came from the north and south. While these were not unicorn horns (they were either rhinoceros horns or narwhal horns), they sold for many times their weight and gold and proved to be a very profitable industry.

Asian Unicorn

In Chinese mythology, there are many accounts of a creature that is known as the qilin. This creature is often thought to be the Chinese equivalent of a unicorn, though it also has the properties of a chimera.

Qilin – The Chinese Unicorn

The qilin is known to have the body of a deer, a lion head, green scales, and one long horn that was its defining characteristic. There is also a Japanese beast of similar makeup that is called the kirin, but it is known that this creature is based off of the qilin.

The qilin are peaceful creatures and are known to be very magical and powerful. The qilin are thought to be able to walk upon grass without disturbing a single blade. However, since these creatures did not want to harm the ground, they were often thought to walk on clouds or water instead. They were also thought to be good judges of character. Many ancient stories show these creatures as being able to know if a person was good or evil just by looking at them. They are peaceful in nature and only punish the wicked.

Read More – What is a Unicorn?

Unicorns—They Exist!

One of the results of the recent Census of Marine Life (2000–10) was the discovery of some 1,200 new species and some 5,000 others awaiting description, confirming, once again, that the Age of Discovery is far from over. It was certainly very far from over when the following entry on “Mammalia” appeared in Britannica’s 4th Edition (1801–09). The scientific consensus of the day was that assorted land animals, including the elusive unicorn, had yet to be discovered or fully understood. A belief in the reality of unicorns goes back some 2,000 years, and it was especially strong in the mid-18th century, due to the sketching of what reportedly was a unicorn skeleton by the great philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz. (It was an honest mistake, the field of paleontology then very much in its infancy.) So while the unicorn is clearly a creature of legend, what continues to resonate is that humbling belief, resonant throughout Britannica, in the many mysteries of nature that still await our discovery.

Quadrupeds have . . . engaged the particular attention of naturalists in every country and in every age, and as our acquaintance with them is less difficult than with most other classes of animated nature, it is not surprising that their form, habits, and manners are most familiar to us. Still, indeed, much remains in doubt respecting some of the foreign and rarer quadrupeds, and of some we know little more than the name. Even with regard to those which have been longest known and described, as the lion, the elephant, the porcupine, etc., the observations of modern naturalists and travelers have corrected several erroneous notions that had been generally received as certain. Long as this part of natural history has occupied the attention of mankind, there yet probably remain many gleanings to repay the industry of future inquirers. It is probable that the unexplored regions of Africa, America, and New Holland, may contain many quadrupeds either entirely unknown to us at present, or known only by the fossil remains that have been discovered in the bowels of the earth.

Read More – Unicorns—They Exist!