More than wonderful beings, they bring a phylosophy of life to the World. Too much has been said about them, but very few has been understood. In this more and more "material world", is there space left for them to live? Surely there is...

The Unicorns Themselves

Etymology: unus, Latin word that means "one"; cornu, Latin word that means "horn". These words originated several variations in many different places: "unicorne", "licorne", "alincorne", "unicorn", "unicórnio". In Japan, people call them "ikkakujuu": i- is a contraction of ichi, which means "one"; kaku means "horn" and juu, "beast".

Trivia: there's a Brazilian bird, about 85 cm long, commonly called "unicórnio" [unic'ornio] or "anhuma" [añ'uma] (scientific name Anhima cornuta (L.)). Its native name, "ña'um", a tupi-guarani word, means "black bird", due to the black feathers of its body back, although its crown, breast and wings' upper feathers are white. It has long toes, a small thorn in each wing and a single horn in the middle of its forehead. It can also be found in Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela, but it is becoming extinct, because indians and villagers have hunted it, believing its horn has magical properties.

Unicorns are wild creatures, very difficult to observe. The earliest reports about unicorns I know are from Asia, mainly from India and China. Their appearance are generally described the same way, don't matter where or when they have been seen. The body of a beast, smaller than a horse, covered with a silky fur. They have long legs, which give them great agility, and hoofs divided in half, similar to a goat's or antelope's hoof. They have long manes that go down to half back. The tails are long and furry. On the top of their heads, they have a long single horn, pointing skyward, which they use to fight fearlessly and fiercely, but only when they cannot runaway. They use to avoid fighting, although some stories present unicorns rescuing other beings, including humans, against "evil creatures", again, including other humans.

Some details in those descriptions differ from one version to another, what can be attributed to the description of different unicorns or even to the excitement of the observers. The horns have been described as been straight or curved, completely white, golden or very colourful with red on the top, black on the middle and blue on the base. The eyes have been told to be completely black or bright with a gleaming light. Their fur are generally told to be snow white, but some reports describe small spots, stripes or even completely black unicorns. The tails have been covered with long furs, like horses, or only on its end, like a lion's tail. Some tales say the males have beards, like goats.

The stories about unicorns are very different, from fantastic dreams of earlier ones to Middle Age's scientific like reports, written to give them credibility as true stories. They attributed to the unicorns magical features, like immortality, invulnerability, invisibility and the ability of "teleportation", probably originated from the fact that they could disappear so quickly at the first sight. In the Middle Age, it was told that the unicorns were pure spirits and only a "pure" (virgin) woman could approach and capture one. Horns of antelopes and rhinoceros, teeth of narwhals and many other things were sold as been unicorn horns, which were believed to be the center of their power and immortality, giving the owner the same characteristics, the resistance against any poison and even resurrect the dead.

Unicorns are generally described as lonely creatures, although some stories talk about groups of unicorns, running on the plains or drinking water of a river. Some stories describe unicorns, alone or in groups, emerging from the sea to play on the beach. Others talk about unicorns appearing from nowhere in deserts, swamps and forests, generally alone, coming close to a lone child, sleeping for a while next to it and then disappearing again.

Unicorns and I

I was just beginning my student life when I first saw a unicorn. It was just a cartoon, "The Unicorn in The Garden", from the same studio that produced "Mister Magoo", U.P.A. The plot was very simple: a beautiful unicorn appears in the garden of a house and begins to graze; the owner looks out from a window and sees it; he tries to convince his wife that there's a unicorn in the garden; she says "unicorns don't exist" at each attempt he makes; completely annoyed, she calls a hospice to take his husband; finally, the unicorn goes away, the man waves a good-bye and enters the house, where his wife and two men from the hospice are waiting; she asks him to show them the unicorn, sounding casual; he simply replies "unicorns don't exist" and the two men arrest his wife, thinking she was the one that believes in unicorns; the man sits by the window and looks to the garden where the unicorn was grazing. Although this cartoon was supposed to be funny, I didn't laugh, I couldn't. I felt as if something inside me had been waked up.

I read, listened and watched everything I could about unicorns. One day, the TV set was on and I was doing anything but watching to it, when my unconscious listened the magic word. I watched that same channel, which was not one of my favourite, cause it had no cartoons, every free time I managed. I got only a ten seconds speech advertisement about an animation movie named "The Last Unicorn", but that was enough. The TV antenna was broken by the wind a few days before the movie broadcasting. The image quality was terrible, but I enjoyed it more than anything else I watched before. That movie changed my life, gave me something to dream about. Many times I find myself daydreaming of fantastic worlds. Sometimes I gather enough courage to write it or draw it. And more than anything, I like to see them free.

The magic of the movie gave me something else. Now I can "see" the nature of people. I have found many people that cannot recognize unicorns, they look at the world as if it was a giant supermarket with things to be acquired, like many human stories describe evil dragons and other giant "monsters", with their caves full of useless treasures. Such stories are allegories, metaphors (as pointed me by an Internet navigator), disguising humans with wolf and devil "skins". The only beings I have ever found with such evil behavior are the humans. I also have found a few that can identify unicorns and wants to arrest them, like a hunter wants a trophy or a harpy wants a pet in a cage. You can recognize those kind of "devils" if you look carefully. When they are talking to you, they look like any other human, but when they are distracted, they generally let you see through their masks. A simple gesture, things they say or just how they say may be enough to identify their real appearance. And here fits an advice from "The Last Unicorn": never run away from a legend or it will get you. Try to act naturally, don't let it know you saw its real face, and show no fear, be strong and confident in yourself.

In the second half of 1996, I began to read the Peter S. Beagle's book "The Last Unicorn", the one that originated the animation. It took me about six months to read it. When I don't like a book, I use to read it very fast, in a week or so, then I wouldn't have to "endure" on it very long. I don't like to stop reading a book, I always give it enough chance to regain itself or me to get the right to criticize it. On the other hand, when I like a book, I read it carefully, I construct a mental image of each scene, with every details. And I had to create many images for "The Last Unicorn". There's real magic in it and I didn't want it to end. Actually, it'll never end while it's alive in my memory.

Peter S. Beagle wrote other books, but I couldn't gather enough time to read them. He was also "creative consultant" of a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, "Wild Fire", a promising production that unfortunately suffered the same problem of so many other ones, the underestimation of the viewers' capacity to assimilate a good story.

I must make a remark here. The cartoon I mentioned in the beginning of this section may not be the first unicorn I have ever seen. I don't know why I didn't write this before, but, anyway, I'm writing now. In a well known evening news/variety television show, many years ago, a man, I think he was a doctor or something like that, because he was wearing a white apron, appeared and said he had captured a unicorn in the woods. He and his daughter kept it in a small farm near the woods. They showed a white beast, with a single horn on the forehead, calmly walking in a pasture. I never heard anything else about that, but it returns to me ever. Was that serious or just a fake? I was too young to remember names or places, but I remember I didn't sleep well that night. And this also may not have been the first unicorn I have seen, but this is another story...

Unicorns in Movies

Beside the cartoon and the animation movie mentioned in the previous section, a few other movies are fixed in my memory.

In 1985, Ridley Scott filmed Legend. It's a fairy tale with the classical plot about the "Good", represented by a couple of unicorns, against the "Evil", represented by a satyr shaped demon. In the movie, the unicorns were the only that kept the sun shining and the world living. When the devil, called "Darkness", killed one of the unicorns, the world froze, covered with snow. Been a conventional fairy tale, the "happy end" is granted by the heroism of a group of humans, dwarfs, elves and a fairie. They defeated the devil and revived the unicorn, returning its horn, what restored the peaceful life to the world. This movie is not really expressive, but tells a good story about unicorns.

In 1992, Blade Runner - Director's Cut was released. In this movie, also a Ridley Scott's, the character Rick Deckard, a blade runner, played by Harrison Ford, dreams about a unicorn, running in the woods, a few seconds scene. In the end of the movie, Deckard finds an origami of a unicorn. The symbolism of the unicorn in this movie is very impressive, far more than in "Legend".

In the 1980's, a movie called "Splash" had Daryl Hannah as a mermaid that fell in love for a human, played by Tom Hanks. A kind of modern version, with happy end, of the fairy tale "The Little Mermaid", by Hans Christian Andersen. The mermaid is pursued by a neurotic hunter and when he finally proves to the world that mermaids exist, an ambitious guy arrests her and says to the hunter to search for unicorns. No unicorn appears in this movie, but I could never forget that scene.

The Japanese anime "Creamy Mami" presented a little girl that received some magical powers from an alien. Using that powers and a personal talent to sing, she became a "pop star". In one episode (see screen shot in the References Page), near the end of the first season, she found a unicorn in a forest. That episode was, somehow, different from the others. Her interference and all her magical powers didn't help to change anything and couldn't lead the story to a "happy ending", as was usual in that series. That really surprised me. A good anime and an outstanding episode.

I visited my family in Japan in the end of 1996 and beginning of 1997. During my vacations, I spent really much time viewing anime videos. Then I found Unico, a Osamu Tezuka production. I think it's a reedited version, because the original anime was created in 1981 and the credits and the video case cover stated a 1987 copyright, if I can remember correctly. It's the story (don't follow this link if you don't want to know the story) about a little unicorn, lost in an unknown world, with no memory of his past. The video rental store had, unfortunately, only one tape, "Unico and the Black Cloud" (Uniko to Kuroi Kumo is the original Japanese title, I think). There're supposed to be two more episodes.

Many other movies showed unicorns, but only a few carried their magic to the screen. It's not necessary to show a disguised horse to make it work.

Unicorns in Artworks

"The Last Unicorn" book is the only one I found that really carried the unicorns' magic inside. It doesn't present them as misfitting beings, like most stories does, but as part of the nature, the world, although their presence itself is enough to make things change. And surely they've been caring about it more than most of the humanity have been. At a certain moment in the book, the last unicorn finds a man, but the only thing he can see in her is a little white mare, don't matter what she does. She easily escapes from him and run out of the city. She then wonders "How can it be? I supposed I could understand it if men had simply forgotten unicorns, or if they had changed so that they hated all unicorns now and tried to kill them when they saw them. But not to see them at all, to look at them and see something else - what do they look like to one another, then? What do trees look like to them, or houses, or real horses, or their own children?"

There's a book named "Unicorns I Have Known". It presents a series of photographs of presumed unicorns, printed in very good quality paper, beautiful colours and is considerably expensive. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any of the author's feelings in it, at least, none about unicorns. But there are some that liked it. I really understand their reasons. The book was expertly edited, a professional work, made to keep the attention of the unicorns' lovers, and liking it or not is a prerogative of each one. And if a book or whatever can make more people love and believe in unicorns, my personal opinion cannot be an obstacle.

Some of the best artworks about unicorns are from Nepal. In a class of a teacher of mine, a great traveller and explorer, some slides from his journey to Nepal were presented. One of them showed pieces for sale to tourists. Among the items, there were a few in which unicorns were depicted, very subtle, and beautiful. The greatest problem is how to go to Nepal to purchase such items, not an easy adventure.

I have found many other artists drawing or modeling unicorns, not all very skilled, but many showed at least a little of that special "light" unicorns have. The artists that make art as a complementation to their lives, not as a way to survive, generally keep the magic longer in their works, because, I think, they are not corrupted by the money and the timing it imposes to the artists. It doesn't mean an artist can't sell its works, but they shouldn't do that fooling its own and the others' feelings.

"Where have you been?"

This question was asked by the character Molly Grue, in "The Last Unicorn", when she first saw the unicorn. But today, where are they, where are they living?
The humanity has destroyed the forests, the rivers, the oceans. Unicorns may be immortal, but would they want to live in a world like this? The humanity doesn't think twice to turn everything into profits. Why should the unicorns right what humans insist doing wrong? When humanity realizes all evil it has done, not just to our world, but to itself, I believe they'll return and everything will be as if they have never gone.

Sometimes I get completely alone, don't matter how many people are around me. Humans become strange beings, adoring the madness of war and wickedness, standing the banners of segregation against themselves. I listen to them talking about others as if they were objects. Indeed, I have seen some of them deceiving others, including myself. Lately, I've found myself often "closed in a shell", leaving even friends outside, once some of them began to try to rule my life as if their lives were the only purpose of everything, disregarding the feelings of everyone else.
In my "shell", I've found many unicorns. No, I'm not crazy, or, at least, no human has tried to arrest me into a hospital (till I know). There're so few "natural" places to live today that the unicorns had found more suitable homes in the mind of dreamers. If you think that's not enough, and you want to touch them, solid, real, I suggest you to restore their ancient homes or make yours as attractive to their needs. If you have a garden, make it so comfortable you, or better, a unicorn, would want to live in there. If you live in a flat or other house without a garden, make the "spirits" of the forests and oceans enter, choosing appropriate colours, furniture (don't follow any established fashion standard, just "feel" what is best fitting) and its position, cultivate small plants or bonsai, if you like them. Act like a unicorn, "think" as one, and make your home, working place and everything else the best for them and, consequently, to yourself.

But more important than anything, never try to trap a unicorn. They can sense the danger and never visit treacherous places, not even in dreams. I have met people that thinks unicorns can be kept as "pets". Being immortal, a prison of any kind is a worst fate than death for unicorns.

After a long Night, the Dawn...

... and after a Dark Age, the Light. Someone reminded me that this world has not only dangerous and evil things, but also beautiful and marvelous wonders. They are surely seldom, hard to find and generally very ephemeral. And exactly because of that they must be enjoyed the most. I dedicate this to the one that recalled me of them and to everyone that never stopped looking for the precious gems the World gives us.

Today, if you say people to watch a sunrise or a sunset, most probably would think you are one of "that strange people" or simply that you are a fool. But in the weekends and holidays the same people would go to a fishing or to the beach and enjoy that things they once ignored. They think it requires something special to appreciate such moments. "The Sun rises and hides itself everyday" they say. They are right, of course, but it doesn't remove any of its wonders, not to the ones that know the meaning of it. And one sunrise is never the same as another day's.

Sit in the shadow of a tree, eating the favourite fruit, and watch the world going on. That's something everyone should do, but it's not ever possible, and not really necessary. To be with your true friends, talking about the weather, the spin of protons or anything are moments that must be enjoyed, too.

And if you are alone, nothing to do, try to create something. A writer once said that people can perpetuate themselves by three ways: planting a tree, educating sons or writing a book. Of course, if you don't have a garden, the means to care for children neither the practice to write, you can paint a picture, build a house (perhaps a model), cook some food, help a cat to come down from a tree (please, don't break it down), create a Home Page (one of my favourite choices), send an E-Mail or anything else to leave "good marks" of your presence in the World, something that could make it better to you and others. The unicorns would certainly like it, anything made with good will from heart.

Reminiscences from The Future

"I have seen the Future. I remember it as I do the Yesterday. The Sun will still be golden and warm, the Moon will still be shiny and lovely and the Earth will still be sapphire blue.

And I found Man as feudal lord, one commanding many, not by army anymore, but by gold. I saw piracy rewarded with fame, while criativity was forgotten till oblivion.

I heard Priests spreading the fury against the Shadow, but dening the Light to exist. I saw people dying in the name of a supreme goodness, a war for peace. Meanwhile, compassion is forbidden and love, punished.

I felt cold iron bars on my window like that of chains around my neck, while the evil soul haunted freely the streets. I looked deep in the eyes of a child, as it aimed the gun to my head, and I saw nothing, a void left by an instant pleasure, now sold as a powder for a piece of paper, a bargain.

I saw people being born without mouth, for they was not supposed to speak or to be heard. I wonder if the next generation would ever have a brain or if thinking would also be considered futile or prohibited. I was told some newborns were blind to avoid seeing their own bodies.

A hunter aimed his powerful weapon against a little bird and shot, but it was already dead, long dead. A blue feather, in a museum, is the last and only sign of it having ever existed. I let a tear go down on the stony ground for those that left no feathers at all.

As the dark cloak of night covers the city and its owners are falling asleep, I stand up and walk, searching for that unmistakable gleam of hope, disguised as a word, a painting, a smile or just a dream.

I dream of a field without fear, a house without doors, a place where children are really children, not bloody hunters.

While I walk I hear a music, played by hearts beating. It seems so far away that sometimes I doubt I would ever be able to find its source. But I still try, every night, when the ghosts and legends are free to walk. And I haven't yet decided if I'm a ghost or a legend.

I see some people standing before a tree, living shields against a machine that turns wood to gold. The machine never sleeps, not even at night. The next day the tree is not there anymore, but I see the same people standing before another tree. Have they ever succeded in saving a tree? Or are they all dead already, like the blue bird? I think I will never know the answer, for ghosts leave no marks and legends, forgotten memories.

Just before dawn, when the wind is the coldest, I lay down on the grass and wait for a miracle. In dreams, the miracle happens and a warmth spreads through my soul, like when I hear that far distant music. And it is played for me, then. But at every sunset, when the shadow becomes master again, I wake up and everything is the same. The neon light covers everything, every single character of the daily story, but I can see less than I do in the dark. Maybe the wonderful world about which I use to hear in songs are just a tale from a crazy bard, a dream from a lost child, another wandering legend.

Now, I wonder what was dream and what was real. Did I saw a terrible world and dreamed of paradise, or was it a nightmare in the dreamland? The Sun is still golden and warm, the Moon is still shiny and lovely and the Earth is still sapphire blue, but people are being grown mindless and heartless, gardens are being made of metal and plastic and dreams are being made of lies. Staying on this Road, the Future won't deserve its colours. I would like to live in a Future as the ghosts dream of and the legends fight for...!"

When I started writing this section, I had two visions of what Future would be like. While I feared one and dreamed about the other, I was disconnected, so to say, from the rest of the World. I had sat myself down before my computer and started typing, without television neither radio neither anything like that, just I, some music and a keyboard. I did so because more recent news are better remembered than more important and old ones and I didn't want any interference of that kind. I couldn't finish it at that time and it took me more two weeks to restart writing it. But something else happened then, some children fired at other people in a school, for nothing. Only then I realized how near and how superficial was one of my visions of the Future. Of course, pseudo-moralists started to attack the same old targets. The television was the first. I have lived with television all my life and watched everything that was broadcasted, from cartoons to that pure-violence movies. Even so, I never felt the impulse to take a chain-saw and make some heads roll down (what would make no difference for some people, except for the fact that they wouldn't be able to smoke anymore - or lie). Till then, I was thinking it was necessary some kind of strong motivation to move someone to destroy another life, but I'm convinced now that the only thing that is really necessary is the mean to do it.

The Tides of History

"What the tide brings, it takes away". This is an old saying, it means that life comes in cycles. If that is true or not, it's up to each one to decide. If things seemed better in the past, it is because memory is selective, people ever choose to recall only the good times, and the older, the better. I fear not the future obstacles, because they were also in the past, though in different colours and shapes, I'm afraid of the size they've got. Those people on the control, wicked and greedy, have pushed the past obstacles to the future, and now, how can we all pass through? But the time for anger is gone.

This Page is a reflex of my own life, like a diary from my mind. And the mind is not linear, for now it remembers something that happened so many years ago, supposed forgotten, a second later it loses what had been just a minute away. Thus, this Page is also not linear, it is more like a wave, carried by electronic tides through the world.

Sometimes sad and sometimes happy, sometimes angry and... this time... Colours of the same picture, an artwork painted on the tides of time, inspired by everything I see, I hear, I live. I translate my heart into words and little pictures in this Page. Why? I'm not sure... Indeed, I really don't know, it just seems right to do so. I started timidly in 1993 and it grew by itself.

I think this is the way of the unicorns, to act by impulse, to let the tides and winds take one to anywhere they want. If life brings me good things, the least I can do is share my happiness with the world that brought it to me. And the bad things... Well, they are just to remind us the sweetness of the good ones and how careful we must be about them. And one day the tides will wash the bads away...

Oh, sure, this is the story about the greatest feeling there can be between two strangers that one day meet, just by chance, against all odds, and find in each other the answer to the ultimate question, the meaning of life. Some people have done terrible things for it, but they never really felt it. But there are far more people that have done good things for it, things that have changed History, things that no one will never know, all things that really matter...