"Unicorns Dig Virgin Women, and Other Lessons ..." Topic

…From Medieval Bestiaries.

"Unicorns may be magical, majestic, beautiful, etc., but they have a serious weakness: virgin women. Indeed, ancient lore says that using a maiden as bait is the only way to snag yourself one of these elusive beasts. When the unicorn falls asleep in her lap, you can capture it, or if you're feeling particularly plucky, run it through with a spear.

was far from mere fantasy back in the Middle Ages, though. The story was one of the more famous passages in what are known as bestiaries, gorgeous compendiums of creatures both real and imagined that sold like mad—second only to the Bible itself. While they were passed off as solid knowledge, bestiaries were almost always wildly wrong about the natural world. Nonetheless, these charming tomes were indispensable to the beginnings of modern science, helping lay the groundwork for the field of zoology as we know it.

Unicorn murder notwithstanding, bestiaries tended to hold a certain reverence for the natural world, ascribing the cleverness, not to mention vices, of humans to various animals. The beaver, for instance, was said to chew its own testicles off when pursued by hunters. And the asp could resist the snake charmer's song by putting one ear against the ground and plugging the other with its tail…"
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Amicalement
Armand

'The beaver, for instance, was said to chew its own testicles off when pursued by hunters.'

I have to ask, how does stopping to do this help it escape the hunters?

It was hunted for them, apparently. Musk.

My favorite is the hedgehog, which would roll around sticking berries to its spines so that it could take them to its burrow for later consumption.

Pic of the beaver:

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