Unicorn

(Lat. unum cornu , “one horn”). An animal, probably fabulous, mentioned by ancient Grecian and Roman authors as a native of India, and described as being of the size of a horse, or larger, the body resembling that of a horse, and with one horn of a cubit and a half or two cubits long on the forehead, the horn straight, its base white, the middle black, the tip red. The body of the animal was also said to be white, its head red, its eyes blue. It was said to be so swift that no horse could overtake it. The unicorn is perhaps best known as a heraldic charge or supporter. Two unicorns were borne as supporters of the Scottish royal arms for about a century before the union of the crowns; and the sinister supporter of the insignia of the United Kingdom is a unicorn argent, armed crined, and unguled or, gorged with a coronet composed of cro es patée and fleurs-de-lis, with a chain affixed, pa ing between the fore legs, and reflexed over the back, of the last.