88 I fVild Cai.— The Ape. I I taste it resembled a rabbit, but that without the friction it was not palatable. Being a subterraneous animal, it is prohibited food ; but the eating o f any forbidden thing becomes lawful to the Mohammedan, b y ascribing to it some medicinal p ro p e r ty ; it is then denominated (Duah) medicine, and not food: b y this evasion, wine is drank by many who are not rigorous Moo- selmin. I never saw the Sibsib north o f the province o f Suse, but it abounds in the mountains o f that district. Its motions are so excessively quick, that it is extremely difficult to shoot it. Wild Cat.— E l Cat el berranie is the Arabic name for this a n im a l; it is much larger than the domestic cat, but similar in fo rm ; the back, neck, and forepart o f the legs are o f a dirty g ray , inclining to brown; the belly is o f a d ir ty white, spotted with b row n ; and the tail is long and handsome. T h e wild cat is so fierce, that when pressed with hunger it will sometimes attack a man. The Ape.— T his animal, w hich appears to form the intermediate link between the human species and the brute, is found o f a v e ry large size in North Atlas, and also about Ceuta.* T he re are various species o f the a p e ; some are called by the A rab s D’Zatute, others E l Kurd ; the Berebbers, or Africans» ca ll them Tongemon, o r Babuin, and affirm that the (Hel Shouel) tailed men o f Sahara, are a production from these animals with the human species. T h e y liv e upon fruits, grass, and. corn, and are often seen in great numbers in the fields, having a centinel to keep watch on some eminence ; and when any person appears he gives the alarm, and they all run off together to the woods, climbing the trees. T h e females w ill jum p from one * The mountaiu at Ceuta is called Jibbel D ’Zatute, the Mountain of Apes. The Rhinoceros. 89 branch to another with their young on their shoulders; they are ve ry subtle and v in d ictive , though easily appeased. The Rhinoceros.— Reem is the Arabic name o f the Rhinoceros. Various and contradictory have been tfie accounts both o f the ancients and moderns respecting the beast with one horn, called the Unicorn,’ which is probably no other than the young Rhinoceros, which is said, b y the Arabs, to have but one horn, till o f a certain age, when a second appears, and some affirm that a third appears when the animal grows old. T h e horn o f the Reem is called Kirkadune by the Arabs, and figurat iv e ly , gurn min gum, i. e. horn o f horns, being extremely hard and fine-grained, and receiving a high polish ; it is sold at a most enormous price, and is used for the hilts o f swords. With regard to the animal called b y our heralds the unicorn, and represented in armorial bearings, I doubt i f ever such an animal existed; the R e em* is called also Huaddee, which s ig nifies the beast o f one horn, Aouda signifies a mare, hence, perhaps, b y an easy corruption o f names, the Aou da has been mistaken for Huaddee, and the figure o f a horse with a horn has been adopted as the figure o f the Reem in our heraldic supporters ; for I have frequently conversed with men who had been twenty years in the different countries o f the interior o f A frica , but never could learn that a beast with ope horn existed ip figure resembling a h o r se .f T h e Reem is also figu rativ e ly * Job, cb. 39, v. 9, 10. f I met with a very intelligent Slielluh in Sbtuka, whilst I was staying at the castle of the Khalif Mohammed ben Delemy, who had been thirty years travelling through various countries of the interior he had frequently seen the Abudad', the Horreh, the hippopotamus, the rhinoceros, the elephant, the hyaena, and. various other animals, but he declared he had never seen an-animal resembling a horse or mare, having one horn, nor had he ever heard, in the different Kaffer countries (as he called them) he had visited, that such an animal existed.
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