Are Unicorns Alive and Well In China?
The myth of the unicorn lives on a farm in China’s Hebei province in the form of a three-horned cow.
Even though the animal’s two normal horns plus the one in the middle of its forehead makes it more of a tri-corn than a unicorn, don’t try and convince those who believe the cow is the mythical creature come to life.
The one horn in the middle of the two-year-old cow’s head has brought fame to the farm owned by Jia Kebing. Technically, this cow is considered a monocerote, or one-horned animal.
“The cow was born with a small bump on its head that has grown to be nearly 8 inches long and now resembles a rhino’s horn. My farm is now famous because of this cow, and people come visit just to see her,” said Jia.
Although highly unusual, this type of occurrence is not unheard of. Over the centuries, many so-called unicorn creatures have appeared since the myth of the unicorn first appeared in India.
Unicorns can be “made,” so to speak, with animal husbandry techniques in which the horn buds are relocated to the middle of the forehead to create one horn.
Such a procedure was adapted in the 1980s by a neo-pagan priest named Oberon Zell, who created unicorns out of goats that toured with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
Existing unicorns are either animals that have been treated in such a manner or anomalies that for some reason have one horn instead of the standard two. Despite this, there are still those who believe that unicorns really do exist. Somewhere.
Perhaps they do in that same magical place wherein dwells Santa Claus, Peter Rabbit and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?
That old expression about wishing makes it so is applicable here as according to some, the real test about whether the cow is a unicorn is wholly dependent on the reaction it gets from people who see it in the flesh.
Who’s to say?
(Link)
By MDeeDubroff on 02-01-2010
