Tales From the Vault - Man Caught With Pigeons Down His Pants
A 23-year-old Australian man stopped by customs officials at Melbourne airport in 2009 was found to have a live pigeon stuffed down each leg of his pants. The man was searched after disembarking from a ten-hour flight from Dubai. First, officials discovered two bird eggs hidden in a vitamin container before a further search revealed that the man was wearing tights under his pants - and inside each leg was a live pigeon wrapped in a padded envelope. An undeclared aubergine was also found in his luggage. A customs spokesman said "We have no idea of his motives".
Pliny the Elder tells us: 'The yale is found in Ethiopia. It is black or tawny colour, and has the tail of an elephant and the jaws of a boar. Its horns are more than a cubit in length and are moveable; in a fight the horns are used alternately, pointed forward or sloped backward, as needed.' According to legend, its long and flexible horns can move independently in any direction. When it fights, it keeps one horn pointed backward, so that if the horn it is fighting with is damaged, it can bring the other to the front. The yale is the size of a horse. The basilisk is the enemy of the yale, and if a basilisk fins one asleep, it stings it between the eyes causing its eyes to swell until they burst.
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