Chinese clay figures. Pt. 1, Prolegomena on the history of defensive armor / by Berthold Laufer.

  • Berthold Laufer
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Chinese clay figures. Pt. 1, Prolegomena on the history of defensive armor / by Berthold Laufer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    75/380 (page 141)
    as in swine. There are one-horned, two-horned, and three-homed ones.” 1 the rhinoceros on Java, says, “They do no mischief, however, with the horn, but with the tongue alone; for this is covered all over with long and strong prickles [and when savage with any one they crush him under their knees and then rasp him with their tongue].” Yule comments that the belief in the formidable nature of the tongue of the rhinoceros is very old and widespread, though he can find no foundation for it other than the rough appearance of the organ. Dr. Parsons (p. 9 in the pamphlet quoted above, p. 83) observes, “As to the tongue of the rhinoceros, the scribes assure us that it is so rugged that it can lick off with it the flesh from the bones of a man, but the tongue of the live animal examined by me is as soft and mild as that of a calf; whether it will grow rougher with the advancing age of the animal, I am unable to say.” It is easy to see how the fable of the prickly tongue arose. The animal mainly feeds on herbage, and the alleged or real observation of its inclination for brambles led to the conclusion that its tongue must be thorn-proof and prickly. A similar belief seems to obtain in Siam: “On dit que ce monstrueux quadrupede fait ses ddlices des epines de bambou” (Mgr. Pallegoix, Description du royaume Thai ou Siam, Vol. I, p. 156, Paris, 1854). 1 Now follows in the Pen ts'ao the quotation from the Erh ya translated above (P-93)* The text then following inth ePen ts'ao is purported to be a quotation from Ling piao lu i; but it is in fact abridged, and intermingled with extracts from Yu yang tsa tsu. For this reason I have abandoned at this point the text of the Pen ts'ao, and given separately translations of the two documents, as they are published in T'u shu tsi ch'eng (Chapter on Rhinoceros, hui k'ao, p. 4). In evidence of my statement, the text of the Pen ts'ao here follows; the main share in the confusion will probably be due to Su Sung, not to Li Shi-chen. “The Ling piao lu i by Liu Sun (of the T'ang period) says, ‘The rhinoceros has two horns: the one on the forehead is called se si, the other, on the nose, is called hu mao si. The male rhinoceros also has two horns both of which are comprised under the name mao si (‘hairy rhinoceros’). At present people uphold the opinion that it has but a single horn. These two kinds of horn are provided with grain patterns, and their price largely depends upon the finer or coarser qualities of these designs. The most expensive is the horn with floral designs of the rhinoceros ‘communicating with the sky.’ The animals with such horns dislike their own shadow, and constantly drink muddy water in order to avoid beholding their reflection. High-grade horns bear likenesses of all things. Some attribute the qualities of the t'ung t'ien horn to a pathological cause, but the natural reason cannot be ascertained. The term tao ch'a means that one half of the lines pass through in the direction downward; the term cMng ch'a means that one half of the lines pass through in the direction upward; the term yao ku ch'a means that the lines are inter¬ rupted in the middle, and do not pass through. Such-like are a great many. The Po-se designate ivory as po-ngan, and rhinoceros-horn as hei-ngan,— words difficult to distinguish. The largest rhinoceros-horn is that of the to-lo-si, a single horn of which weighs from seven to eight catties. This is identified with the horn on the forehead of the male rhinoceros. It has numerous decorations conveying the impression of scattered beans. If the specks are deep in color, the horn is suitable to be made into plaques for girdle-ornaments; if the specks are scattered here and there, and light in color, the horn can be made only into bowls and dishes. In the opinion of some, the animal called se is the female of the si. [It resembles the water-buffalo, and is of dark color. Its hide is so hard and thick that it can be worked into armor.] I do not know whether this is the case or not.” (There is here a confusion in Li Shi-chen’s text. The passage enclosed in brackets does not occur in the text of the Cheng lei pen ts'ao, where it runs, “In the opinion of some, the animal called se is the female of the si; 1 do not know whether this is the case or not.” The rest is evidently interpolated, and is derived from the Shuo wen and its commentaries; at all events, it cannot be ascribed to Su Sung.) “Wu Shi-kao, a physician of the T'ang period, tells the fol¬ lowing story: ‘The people near the sea, intent on capturing a rhinoceros, proceed by erecting on a mountain-path many structures of decayed timber, something like a stable for swine or sheep. As the front legs of the rhinoceros are straight, without joints, it is in the habit of sleeping by leaning against the trunk of a tree. The rotten