Note 7 — Chapter I
Reading edition
Dr. Baikie, writing to the ‘Athenæum,’ from Bida Nupe, the Nyffe of Richard Lander, in Central Africa, January 15, 1862, concerning this ‘romance of natural history,’ declares that five years of experience have shaken his scepticism; and that whereas he once looked upon the unicorn as a myth, he now ‘simply holds that its non-existence is not proven’—a giant’s step on the path of faith. The horn, he has heard, is long, black, and straight, or nearly straight, and the hunters of the one-horned rhinoceros carefully distinguish between this and the equine monoceros. Finally, he supplies the following list of names by which the animal is called in various countries, from Lake Chad to the Gulf of Guinea:—
Búndiá-ru and Kamárami in Kanuri (Bornu).
Maríri in Hausa.
Yílifú and Dákarkúlewal in Fulfulde, or Filáni.
Kárafitu in Márgí.
Pānlíli in Núpe.
Agába in Bonu (where a skull is said to be).
Iwú in Yoruba.
Tenesek in A’zbentsi (Tawárek).
M. D’Abbadie alludes to it in Kordofan under the name of A’nasa. Mr. Bowen’s agbangrere was described as having the form of a sorrel horse with the feet of a cow, and with a single horn like that of an antelope. A horn was produced, ‘black in colour, coarsely rugose below and smooth towards the top;’ possibly it was a kudu’s. The unfortunate slayer is sure to die within a year.