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© Copyright 1999, Jim Loy
At one time, I lived in the basement of a house owned by a friend of mine. I was playing the Irish Rovers' Greatest Hits. And their very greatest hit was The Unicorn. In the song, the unicorns are drowned in Noah's flood. Jodi, the little girl of the family, asked me if that is what really happened to the unicorns. I told her that there was never any such thing as a unicorn. She was very upset, and cried. Hey, if you're a child, don't ask me about Santa Claus or dragons or the Easter Bunny. I believe that children should be told that these stories are fiction, because of the shock or distrust when the child asks Jim and finds out that his/her parents "lied" about that. Of course, you don't begin each story with a disclaimer. But you know what I mean.
It turns out that unicorns are probably based on fact. In medieval and Renaissance Europe, people sometimes heard reports of an animal in Africa (and Asia) that ate grass, had a horn on its nose, and was likely to stab you with its horn. The animal was, of course, the rhinoceros, not a very good looking unicorn. The very long (up to 9 feet long), spiral tooth (usually the left incisor) of the male (and sometimes female) narwhal (a small arctic whale) may have contributed to the legend.
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