Full Cast Actual NARWAHL TUSK the Original UNICORN HORN

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Name: Full Size Cast of NARWHAL / UNICORN TUSK  Time: c. 1978 Location: Arctic Circle Culture: Inuit Indians

UNICORN LEGEND: 
The legend of the Unicorn is an old, enduring and almost universal story.  Surprisingly today we find it is cloaked in both myth and reality, substance and imagination.  The "horn of  the Unicorn"  is, however, a tangible legacy from the middle ages.  It has both form and substance today and exists not only as legend but as part of royal scepters (see below), crowns and thrones handed down as part of crown treasures from our distant past.

CHINA: The first recorded reference to the unicorn was made over 4000 years ago in China.  Chinese chronicles report that on the birth of  the famous Yellow  Emperor (Huang-Ti) in 2607 BC, a k’I-lon or "great unicorn" walked majestically into the imperial house and after a brief exploration, vanished.  Of the four animals of Chinese good omen, the dragon, phoenix, tortoise and unicorn, the unicorn believed to be the most important.  Its sudden appearance is thought to herald the birth of a great person.  The Yellow  Emperor succeeded in uniting China, building the first great palace and developing a calendar.  About 2000 years later, in the 6th Century BC, a unicorn is said to have visited a young woman in her garden and its mouth was a jade tablet with the words: "Son of mountain crystal, when the dynasty crumbles thou shalt rule as a throneless king."  Shortly there after, the young woman gave birth to a son who became known as Confucius, China’s greatest sage ? its "throneless king".  The Chinese unicorn was described as having the hooves of a horse, the body of a stag, the tail of an ox, and a coat of five colors.   This wise, nobel and powerful creature was reported to have a 12 foot horn in the middle of its forehead. It was reported In the 4th Century that when poisonous liquids were stirred with unicorn horn "a white foam would bubble up".

MIDDLE EAST:  Unicorn horn traveled from China, via the 4000 mile Silk Road, to reach Baghdad, Constantinople, and Alexandria in the middle east. Arab historian al-Biruni wrote that the Egyptians craved unicorn horn because "… the approach of poison causes it to exude".  He also reported that by the time it reached Egypt it was 200 times more expensive than in China.

EUROPE: In 416 BC a famous Greek physician Ctesias of Cnidus was appointed court physician to Darius II, king of Persia..  On his return to Greece he wrote about is experiences.  He recounted merchant stories that in India there was an unusual species of wild ass which were as large as horses.  "These creatures had "a horn on their forehead about a foot and a half in length."  "The dust filed from this horn is administered in a potion as a protection against deadly drugs.  … Those that drink out of these horns, made into drinking vessels, are not subject, they say, to convulsions or the holy disease (epilepsy).   Indeed, they are immune to poison if, either before of after swallowing such, they drink wine, water or anything else from such beakers."  Later Greek naturalists such as Pliny and Aelian describe the unicorn at great length.  In De Animalium Natura,  a 2nd century Roman book on animals, the author wrote that kings of India drank from vessels of "unicorn horn".  He reported that if poisoned liquids were poured into such cups, they would begin to sweat and change color.  Marco Polo wrote in the 13th Century that he saw unicorns on the island of Sumatra.  He described them as "..being smaller than the elephant but with similar feet … In the middle of the forehead they have a single horn.  Their head is like a wild boar  … They take delights in muddy pools and are filthy in their habits.  They are not at all like those (unicorns) which are said to allow themselves to be taken by maidens".   What Marco Polo actually saw was the now nearly extinct one-horned Sumatrian rhinoceros.

The NARWHAL: 
The name "narwhal" is Old Norse in origin.  Derived from a word meaning "corpse," it refers to the color of adult  narwhals (Monodon monoceros), which are white-grey with blotches of dark gray.  The body length of males may reach 15 feet, while the tusk adds another 5 to 9 feet, and weigh up to 3000 lbs.  Narwhals are relatively reclusive whales about which not a great deal is known.  They are seldom seen  south of the Arctic Circle.  It is estimated that there are only approximately 10,000 to 45,000 narwhals alive today.

The "horn" is an extremely elongated, hollow tooth which always spirals counter-clockwise from the left side of the skull.   There have been sightings of narwhals with two tusks present.   Almost exclusively seen in males, there are only scattered reports of females developing a tusk.  Narwhals have no other visible teeth in their jaws.  As the tusk grows, it forms a continued solid spiral, a pattern faithfully reproduced by ancient artists trying to capture the likeness of the unicorn. Why this twisted growth should occur is a question that has long had no good answer and the function of the tusk is still open to debate.  Although many have speculated that it may be used for defense or for securing food, it is most likely a secondary sexual characteristic.   Behavioral and anatomical evidence suggests males use it in aggressive encounters when trying to obtain mates.

Ancient Vikings, with whom the term 'narwhal' originated, used to trade the horns to Europeans as Unicorn horns. A tusk often weighed up to twenty-two pounds, are still considered rare and valuable treasures, with some ancient superstitions still attached. Vikings considered killing a Narwhal for its tusk unlucky, while finding one washed ashore was believed to be a sign of great fortune.  Narwhals have never been a target for commercial whalers, although tusks were regularly traded.  They are preyed upon by killer whales and Greenland sharks, but their main enemy is man.  Since some still believe their tusk possess almost magical healing and aphrodisiastic properties, they are still illegally hunted today.  They are protected by both national and international laws.  Current legislation  restricts their use to Inuit for subsistence or domestic reasons.  A quota system, which came into effect in 1977,  requires hunters to possess a tag for each animal taken. 

MERGING TRUTH and LEGEND
During the Middle Ages Europeans heard incredible, mystical stories from China, viewed first hand drawings from Africa of fantastic wildlife, including horse-like antelopes with beautiful horns such as the Ibex and Oryx, and were shown by the Vikings actual great spiral "horns", 8 or 9 feet long which gleamed with an inner fire.