16

After the exchange of ritual gifts, I asked the king why every woman was pregnant except for the very young and very old. He swore that a unicorn’s pounding gallop awakened the women from their sleep. Some women said the unicorn had the body of a deer and a twisting silver horn. Others saw the hooves of a horse or the tail of an ox. One spoke of fur sparkling with the five sacred colors—red, yellow, blue, black, and white. Another vowed that heavenly fire clothed the unicorn. I praised God for the king’s good fortune. To glimpse the unicorn foretells the birth of a great being. Then, on bended knees, he pledged the fealty of a thousand generations to my glorious emperor, Chu Ti.

From the log of Cheng Ho, admiral of the western seas, voyage of the fifth armada