GNU 55 of the sun," about the close of the llth by the Catharists, and in the 12th by the Bogo- miles of Byzantium. Some of the opinions of the knights templars and of the Waldenses seemed to be borrowed from this source, and the reveries of Spanish and German mystics are not unlike the hymns of Bardesanes. The sources from which our knowledge of Gnosti- cism is drawn are the single Gnostic work Pis- tis Sophia, translated from Coptic into Latin by M. G. Schwartze (edited by J. H. Petermann, Berlin, 1851); IrenasusVE/ley^oc TW ^ev6uvv[j.ov yvucsag (edited by Stieren, Leipsic, 1853) ; frag- ments from Irenasus and Hippolytus (edited by Emanuel Miller, Oxford, 1851) ; and the works of Ignatius, Justin, Tertullian, Clement of Alex- andria, Origen, Eusebius, Philastrius, Epipha- nius, Theodoret, Augustine, Plotinus, and oth- ers. The more important modern works which treat of Gnosticism are : Neander, Genetisclie Entwiclcelung der vorneJimsten gnostischen Sys- teme (Berlin, 1818); E. A. Lewald, De Doc- trina Onostica (Heidelberg, 1818); Mohler, Ursprung des Onosticismus (Tubingen, 1831) ; Baur, Die christliche Gnosis, oder die christ- liche KeligionspMlosophie in ihrer geschicht- lichen Entwiclcelung (Tubingen, 1835); Mat- ter, Histoire critique du gnosticisme (2d ed., 3 vols., Paris, 1843-'4); the church histories of Mosheim, Neander, Gieseler, Hase, and Schaff ; Beausobre's " History of Manichaeism," Miin- ter's " Ecclesiastical Antiquities," Hitter's "His- tory of Philosophy," Corners " Christology," and Bunsen's " Hippolytus and his Age." GNU, a hollow-horned ruminating animal, in- habiting the plains of southern and central Af- rica, generally classed with the bovidw or ox family, of the genus catoblepas (H. Smith) or connochetes (Gray) ; the wilde freest of the Dutch colonists at the Cape. It is one of the most singular of animals, having the head and horns of a buffalo, the body and mane of a horse, and White Gnu (Catoblepas gnu). the limbs of an antelope. The form of the head, neck, and shoulders is decidedly bovine, robust, and clumsy; the forehead wide and flat, the muzzle broad, and covered with hair except the valvular opening of the nostrils ; the eyes large ; ears long, narrow, and pointed ; horns present in both sexes, above and behind the eyes, close together at their origin, descending at first downward and outward, then curving upward and backward, flattened at the base, cylindrical at the tip, rough and irregular. The hair on the brows and forehead is long and shaggy, Brindled Gnu (Catoblepas gorgon). giving a fierce expression to the face ; the neck has a rigid mane above, and a long, hairy dew- lap below; the shoulders are deep, and sur- mounted by a moderate hump ; the body is rounded like that of a horse, and the limbs delicately formed ; the tail is moderately long, with a brush at the end; the hair elsewhere on the body is short; the hoofs are rather large for the limbs, and the skin of the knees is bare and callous, from their habit of going on their knees in attack and defence. The general color of the common species (C. gnu, H. Smith) is yellowish tawny, darkest on the back and legs, with the tips of the long hair blackish. The gnu, though clumsy in appear- ance, is very swift and active, galloping over the plains like a horse, and feeding in large herds like wild cattle ; when alarmed, it rarely takes to flight until it has examined into the cause of the danger, a curiosity of which the hunter is able to take advantage; it is very pugnacious, and is tamed with difficulty. The common species is about 3 ft. 10 in. high at the shoulders, and 6^ ft. long from nose to tail. A second and larger species is the Icokoon or brindled gnu, ~blauwe wilde beest (C. taurina et gorgon, H. Smith), which measures about 5 ft. at the shoulders and 7$ ft. from nose to tail, the tail If ft, and the horns about 2 ft. long. The face is blackish, the sides of the head and neck yellowish gray, the latter and the shoul- ders with vertical dark stripes ; the body above and the sides glossy reddish gray ; below, and the limbs, reddish brown. Both species in- habit the extensive grassy plains of central
