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Unicorns
Because of the Unicom's purity, its horn (known as alicom) was considered magical and became a popular ingredient in medieval medicines. Its mere presence was considered a strong protection against poison in food, and when worn in jewelry, it protected the wearer from evil.

Alicorn was often worth more than its weight in gold, so kings, emperors, and popes were among the few people able to pay the high prices demanded. They were eager to acquire the precious horn to "guarantee" long and healthy lives. With such a lucrative trade, false alicorn was rampant, made from bull horn, goat horn, or in some cases from the horns of exotic animals or from ordinary dog bones.

Complete Unicom horns were very rare. For example, a complete Unicom horn owned by Queen Elizabeth I of England was valued at the time at £10,000 - the equivalent of about 3,000 ounces of gold and enough money to buy a large country estate complete with a castle. Rather than coming from unicorns, these complete horns often turned out to be the long spirally twisted tusks of the male narwhal, a large marine animal.

Kings often placed alicorn on the table to protect themselves against poisonous food and drink, and until the revolution toppled the monarchy in 1789, the eating utensils used by French kings were made of Unicom horn to counteract any poison in the food.

How to Test Real Unicorn Horn

Medieval pharmacists believed in the power of the Unicorn as a medicine, and the Unicorn even became the apothecaries' symbol. According to St. Hildegard, who passionately believed in the power of the Unicorn to heal illness, the Unicorn's strength came from the fact that once a year, it returned to drink the waters and eat the vegetation of paradise.

Ground Unicorn horn was said to cure fever, plague, epilepsy, rabies, gout, and a host of other ailments. Unicorn liver was a cure for leprosy. Shoes made of Unicorn leather assured healthy feet and legs, and a belt of Unicorn leather worn around the body warded off plague and fever. Belief in the power of the Unicorn was widely held in England until the mid- I 700s.

How to Catch a Unicorn

During the middle ages a fable was told that although the Unicorn was impossible to hunt down, it was so impressed by the presence of a lovely virgin that it would run up to her and submissively lay its head in her lap. Marco Polo's editor Colonel Yule affirms athat the Unicorn was supposed to be attracted noty by the lay's beauty or chastity, but by the perfumes of her dress. Still legends that spread throughout Europe stated that it was impossible to catch a Unicorn by force. The only way to capture one was for a maiden to wait alone under a fig tree where Unicorns were known to be found. When he saw the maiden, the Unicorn would run up and lay its head in her lap - at which point it could be easily taken by the hunters hiding nearby.