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In an inspired iteration of a cluttered genre-world-history-through-innocuous-topic-U.K. natural historian Lavers (Why Elephants Have Big Ears) rattles off a history of the mythical unicorn that "binds. the earth's natural history to our own." An object of fascination for at least the last 2,000 years, the unicorn was described in 398 B.C. by the Greek Ctesias as "wild asses as large as horses... white [bodies], their heads dark red" with a horn that, when used as a drinking glass, protected men from epilepsy and poison. Ctesias became a source for Aristotle and Pliny, who shaped European beliefs for 1500 years. Wending its way into (and possibly out of) the Old Testament (Ctesias's ass was, "like the Hebrews' totemic reem, real strong, horned, indomitable and, crucially, not a cow."), unicorns are incorporated into Bible translations and the Physiologus bestiary (in its time, almost as big as the Bible), and one-horned creatures have even been found drawn on the walls of African caves. Laver's tongue-in-cheek delivery maintains its charm throughout while turning up a good bit of knowledge about natural history and how it's been artfully embellished by those recording it. (Aug.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information. |
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What exactly is a unicorn? To some extent this depends on one's cultural background. To a person raised in Western Europe, a unicorn is a white, goatlike animal with its head craddled in a virgin's lap. To Indians or Tibetans, a unicorn is a fierce, one-horned ass that fights ferociously when cornered. The unicorn myth has existed for millennia, filtered through what was known about each region's resident wild-animal species. Unicorns could therefore have aspects of goats, sheep, yaks, musk oxen, wild asses, and even rhinoceroses and narwhals. Lavers, lecturer in natural history and author of Why Elephants Have Big Ears (2001), follows the lively mythology, anthropology, and natural history of the unicorn in a vivid and highly readable trek following the trail of this elusive beast.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2009 Booklist |