KILIN  , or CH'-I-LIN, one of the four symbolical creatures which in

Chinese mythology are believed to keep watch and ward over the Celestial Empire . It is a unicorn, portrayed in Chinese art as having the body and legs of a deer and an ox's tail . Its advent on earth heralds an age of enlightened government and civic prosperity . It is regarded as the noblest of the animal creation and as the incarnation of fire, water, wood, metal and earth . It lives for a thousand years, and is believed to step so softly as to leave no footprints and to crush no living thing .