"T. H. White - The Once and Future King" - читать интересную книгу автора (White T.H)

St. Toirdealbhach laid the precious book on the grass outside his hole. The grass was sandy and had
empty snail shells scattered over it, small yellowish shells with a purple spiral. He opened the book,
which was a Bestiary called Liber de Natura Quorundam Animalium, and showed that it had pictures on
every page.
They made him turn the vellum quickly, with its lovely Gothic manuscript, skipping the enchanting
Griffins, Bonnacons, Cocodrills, Manticores, Chaladrii, Cinomulgi, Sirens, Peridexions, Dragons, and
Aspidochelones. In vain for their eager glances did the Antalop rub its complicated horns against the
tamarisk treeтАФthus, entangled, becoming a prey to its huntersтАФin vain did the Bonnacon emit its
flatulence in order to baffle the pursuers. The Peridexions, sitting on trees which made them immune to
dragons, sat unnoticed. The Panther blew out his fragrant breath, which attracted his prey, without
interest for them. The Tigris, who could be deceived by throwing down a glass ball at its feet, in which,
seeing itself reflected, it thought to see its own cubsтАФthe Lion, who spared prostrate men or captives,
was afraid of white cocks, and brushed out his own tracks with a foliated tailтАФthe Ibex, who could
bound down from mountains unharmed because he bounced upon his curly hornsтАФthe Yale, who could
move his horns like earsтАФthe She-Bear who was accustomed to bear her young as lumps of matter and
lick them into whatever shape she fancied afterwardsтАФthe Chaladrius bird who, if facing you when it
sat on your bedrail, showed that you were going to dieтАФ the Hedgehop who collected grapes for their
progeny by rolling on them, and brought them back on the end of their pricklesтАФeven the
Aspidochelone, who was a large whale-like creature with seven fins and a sheepish expression, to whom
you were liable to moor your boat in mistake for an island if you were not careful: even the
Aspidochelone scarcely detained them. At last he found them the place at the Unicorn, called by the
Greeks, Rhinoceros.
It seemed that the Unicorn was as swift and timid as the Antalop, and could only be captured in one
way. You had to have a maid for bait, and, when the Unicorn perceived her alone, he would immediately
come to lay his horn in her lap. There was a picture of an unreliable-looking virgin, holding the poor
creature's horn in one hand, while she beckoned to some spearmen with the other. Her expression of
duplicity was balanced by the fatuous confidence with which the Unicorn regarded her.
Gawaine hurried off, as soon as the instructions had been read and the picture digested, to fetch the
kitchenmaid without delay.
"Now then," he said, "you have to come with us on the mountain, to catch a unicorn."


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"Oh, Master Gawaine," cried the maid he had caught hold of, whose name was Meg.
"Yes, you have. You are to be the bait whatever. It will come and put its head in your lap."
Meg began to weep.
"Now then, do not be silly."
"Oh, Master Gawaine, I do not want a unicorn. I have been a decent girl, I have, and there is all the
washing up to do, and if Mistress Truelove do catch me playing at truant I shall get stick, Master
Gawaine, that I will."
He took her firmly by the plaits and led her out.
In the clean bog-wind of the high tops, they discussed the hunt. Meg, who cried incessantly, was held by
the hair to prevent her from running away, and occasionally passed from one boy to the other, if the one
who was holding her happened to want both hands for gestures.
"Now then," said Gawaine. "I am the captain. I am the oldest, so I am the captain."
"I thought of it," said Gareth.
"The question is, it says in the book that the bait must be left alone."