Abath

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Abath is a name of an Indonesian creature regarded to be a unicorn. Edmund Barker, a member of James Lancaster's crew travelling to East India, reported that in the kingdom of Iunsalaom (Junkceylon, now Phuket Island in Thailand) they purchased 2 or 3 horns of abath, which is thought to be a female unicorn. The creature has one horn in its forehead, which is brown-gray in color and is prized as a great remedy against poison.<ref>Hakluyt, Richard. Principal Navigations..., vol. 11</ref>

This abath is certainly Sumatran or Javan rhinoceros, in Malay called بادق‎ bādaḳ. The qaf is usually silent, so the word "bada" was coined by Portuguese travelers. Ending in "a", it seemed feminine to their ears and was assigned the feminine article, "la bada", and sometimes misinterpreted as "l'abada" (see: abada). "Abath" is a variant of this word.<ref>Scott, C.P.G. The Malayan words in English</ref>

Explanations

Indonesian rhinoceroses had been mistaken for unicorns for a long time. Marco Polo, traveling through the kingdom of Basma, reported numerous unicorns living there, however he pointed out that those ugly, mud-wallowing brutes are very different from unicorns from European stories.<ref>Polo, Marco. The Travels of Marco Polo</ref>

References
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Category:Southeast Asia>Category:Southeast Asia
Category:Asian cryptids>Category:Asian cryptids
Category:Indonesia>Category:Indonesia
Category:Cryptid Wiki>Category:Cryptid Wiki
Category:Cryptids>Category:Cryptids
Category:Mammals>Category:Mammals
Category:Ungulates>Category:Ungulates
Category:Herbivores>Category:Herbivores

Category:Horned>Category:Horned
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