MarvelsOfThingsCreatedAndMiraculousAspectsOfThingsExisting

Research mythology

A large animal, possibly big as an elephant which roams the perimeter of the world. His path traces the boundary of the forest. As the forest gets bigger the path he travels gets larger too. Once the forest gets really big I can imagine it becoming a very difficult animal to find (unless you know where to look) You cannot interact with the Sadawaar. But his music made when the wind blows through his horns can make your deer dance or cry.

Translation: SADAWAAR- This Animal lives in the north of the land of the Byzantine and is also called "ars". He has one horn with forty-two hollow branches. When the wind blows the air collects inside (blows through it?) and makes a very pleasant sound. When other animals hear it they come gather around him. It has been said that once there was a king that received one of these horns as a gift. He held it in his hands in the wind and there was such an miraculously sweet sound that people went into an ecstasy, intoxicated and enraptured. Then, when he held the horn upsidedown there came such a sad sound from it that people were almost completely overwhelmed by tears. This text is from "De wereld van Sjahrazaad" by Richard Van Leeuwen, possibly based on something in Al-Kazwini's (or Al-Qazwini) "Aja ib al-Makhluqat", "Wonders of Creation" or "Wonders of the World", based on the work of Al-Jahiz.

Illustration from the “Aja’ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara’ib al-mawjudat” (Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing) composed in the 13th cent. by Zakariya’ ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini. Undated: possibly produced in provincial 18th cent. Mughal India, possibly Punjabi. NLM MS P2, fol. 169a [1]

Perhaps the third animal:

Larger version
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/natural_hist4.html

A year or so ago I had a thread about this in my LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/womanonfire/589128.html
Excerpts
The animal described above seems like a mythic unicorn-like creature out of a novel by Borges or Eco. If such an animal existed in real life it would be well-known, given its peculiarities. But even if it is fictitious, it might be possible to “simulate” the music of its horn. I imagine constructing a hybrid sound consisting of an Aeolian Harp and a Glass Armonica might do the trick.
--- C.P. McDill

The horn sounds like an instrument I once saw Ronald Shannon Jackson playing - kind of like 12 trumpets all strapped together. Trying to remember what it was called... the word “Mayhorn” rings a bell. Just checked a CD and he’s credited with playing schalmei on it, but looking it up that just seems to be a (Flemish?) word for a shawm.
...
BTW, it’s “shawm” not “schwam”, and I used to have a couple of them here (actually, they were shenai, which is the Indian version of the shawm - one like this http://www.silverbushmusic.com/shenaireeds.html and another one slightly different).
--- Dan Sumption