[Illustration: EX LIBRIS]
_PUBLISHER’S NOTE._
_Two hundred and ten copies of this Work printed on superfine Royal 8vo
paper. Each copy numbered. Type distributed._
_No. 175_
CURIOUS
CREATURES
IN
ZOOLOGY
With 130 Illustrations
throughout the Text
JOHN ASHTON
[Illustration]
LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14, KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
1890
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
“Travellers see strange things,” more especially when their writing
about, or delineation of, them is not put under the microscope of modern
scientific examination. Our ancestors were content with what was given
them, and being, as a rule, a stay-at-home race, they could not confute
the stories they read in books. That age of faith must have had its
comforts, for no man could deny the truth of what he was told. But now
that modern travel has subdued the globe, and inquisitive strangers have
poked their noses into every portion of the world, “the old order
changeth, giving place to new,” and, gradually, the old stories are
forgotten.
It is to rescue some of them from the oblivion into which they were fast
falling, that I have written, or compiled, this book. I say compiled it,
for I am fonder of letting old authors tell their stories in their
old-fashioned language, than to paraphrase it, and usurp the credit of
their writings, as is too much the mode now-a-days.
It is not given to every one to be able to consult the old Naturalists;
and, besides, most of them are written in Latin, and to read them
through is partly unprofitable work, as they copy so largely one from
another. But, for the general reader, selections can be made, and, if
assisted by accurate reproductions of the very quaint wood engravings, a
book may be produced which, I venture to think, will not prove tiring,
even to a superficial reader.
Perhaps the greatest wonders of the creation, and the strangest forms of
being, have been met with in the sea; and as people who only
occasionally saw them were not draughtsmen, but had to describe the
monsters they had seen on their return to land, their effigies came to
be exceedingly marvellous, and unlike the originals. The Northern Ocean,
especially, was their abode, and, among the Northern nations, tales of
Kraken, Sea-Serpents, Whirlpools, Mermen, &c., &c., lingered long after
they were received with doubt by other nations; but perhaps the most
credulous times were the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when no
travellers’ tales seem too gross for belief, as can well be seen in the
extreme popularity, throughout all Europe, of the “Voyages and Travels
of Sir John Maundeville,” who, though he may be a myth, and his
so-called writings a compilation, yet that compilation represented the
sum of knowledge, both of Geography, and Natural History, of countries
not European, that was attainable in the first half of the fourteenth
century.
All the old Naturalists copied from one another, and thus compiled
their writings. Pliny took from Aristotle, others quote Pliny, and so
on; but it was reserved for the age of printing to render their writings
available to the many, as well as to represent the creatures they
describe by pictures (“the books of the unlearned”), which add so much
piquancy to the text.
Mine is not a learned disquisition. It is simply a collection of
zoological curiosities, put together to suit the popular taste of
to-day, and as such only should it be critically judged.
JOHN ASHTON.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY 1
AMAZONS 23
PYGMIES 26
GIANTS 32
EARLY MEN 38
WILD MEN 44
HAIRY MEN 47
THE OURAN OUTAN 51
SATYRS 55
THE SPHYNX 61
APES 65
ANIMAL LORE 67
THE MANTICORA 71
THE LAMIA 74
THE CENTAUR 78
THE GORGON 83
THE UNICORN 87
THE RHINOCEROS 97
THE GULO 101
THE BEAR 105
THE FOX 125
THE WOLF 134
WERE-WOLVES 140
THE ANTELOPE 145
THE HORSE 146
THE MIMICK DOG 150
THE CAT 154
THE LION 156
THE LEONTOPHONUS--PEGASUS--CROCOTTA 157
THE LEUCROCOTTA--THE EALE--CATTLE FEEDING BACKWARDS 159
ANIMAL MEDICINE 160
THE SU 163
THE LAMB-TREE 165
THE CHIMÆRA 170
THE HARPY AND SIREN 171
THE BARNACLE GOOSE 174
REMARKABLE EGG 179
MOON WOMAN 180
THE GRIFFIN 180
THE PHŒNIX 183
THE SWALLOW 186
THE MARTLET, AND FOOTLESS BIRDS 189
SNOW BIRDS 191
THE SWAN 193
THE ALLE, ALLE 194
THE HOOPOE AND LAPWING 196
THE OSTRICH 197
THE HALCYON 199
THE PELICAN 200
THE TROCHILUS 201
WOOLLY HENS 202
TWO-HEADED WILD GEESE 203
FOUR-FOOTED DUCK 203
FISH 206
MERMEN 206
WHALES 214
THE SEA-MOUSE 234
THE SEA-HARE 234
THE SEA-PIG 235
THE WALRUS 235
THE ZIPHIUS 238
THE SAW FISH 239
THE ORCA 239
THE DOLPHIN 242
THE NARWHAL 244
THE SWAMFISCK 245
THE SAHAB 247
THE CIRCHOS 247
THE REMORA 253
THE DOG-FISH AND RAY 255
THE SEA DRAGON 256
THE STING RAY 256
SENSES OF FISHES 258
ZOOPHYTES 259
SPONGES 260
THE KRAKEN 261
CRAYFISH AND CRABS 267
THE SEA-SERPENT 268
SERPENTS 278
WORMES AND DRAGONS 293
THE CROCODILE 311
THE BASILISK AND COCKATRICE 317
THE SALAMANDER 323
THE TOAD 326
THE LEECH 329
THE SCORPION 330
THE ANT 332
THE BEE 332
THE HORNET 333
INDEX 335
[Illustration]
CURIOUS CREATURES.
Let us commence our researches into curious Zoology with the noblest of
created beings, Man; and, if we may believe Darwin, he must have gone
through many phases, and gradual mutations, before he arrived at his
present proud position of Master and Conqueror of the World.
This philosopher does not assign a high place in the animal creation to
proud man’s protogenitor, and we ought almost to feel thankful to him
for not going further back. He begins with man as an Ascidian, which is
the lowest form of anything of a vertebrate character, with which we are
acquainted; and he says thus, in his “Descent of Man”:--
“The most ancient progenitors in the kingdom of the Vertebrata, at which
we are able to obtain an obscure glance, apparently consisted of a group
of marine animals, resembling the larvæ of existing Ascidians. These
animals probably gave rise to a group of fishes, as lowly organised as
the lancelet; and from these the Ganoids, and other fishes like the
Lepidosiren, must have been developed. From such fish a very small
advance would carry us on to the amphibians. We see that birds and
reptiles were once intimately connected together; and the Monotremata
now, in a slight degree, connect mammals with reptiles. But no one can,
at present, say by what line of descent the three higher, and related
classes--namely, mammals, birds, and reptiles, were derived from either
of the two lower vertebrate classes, namely, amphibians, and fishes. In
the class of mammals the steps are not difficult to conceive which led
from the ancient Monotremata to the ancient Marsupials; and from these
to the early progenitors of the placental mammals. We may thus ascend to
the Lemuridæ; and the interval is not wide from these to the Simiadæ.
The Simiadæ then branched off into two great stems, the New World, and
Old World monkeys; and from the latter, at a remote period, Man, the
wonder and glory of the Universe, proceeded.”
* * * * *
“We have thus far endeavoured rudely to trace the genealogy of the
Vertebrata, by the aid of their mutual affinities. We will now look to
man as he exists; and we shall, I think, be able partially to restore
during successive periods, but not in order of time, the structure of
our early progenitors. This can be effected by means of the rudiments
which man still retains, by the characters which occasionally make their
appearance in him through reversion, and by the aid of morphology and
embryology. The various facts to which I shall here allude, have been
given in the previous chapters. The early progenitors of man were no
doubt once covered with hair, both sexes having beards; their ears were
pointed and capable of movement; and their bodies were provided with a
tail, having the proper muscles. Their limbs and bodies were also acted
on by many muscles, which now only occasionally reappear, but are
normally present in the Quadrumana.... The foot, judging from the great
toe in the fœtus, was then prehensile; and our progenitors, no doubt,
were arboreal in their habits, frequenting some warm, forest-clad land.
The males were provided with great canine teeth, which served them as
formidable weapons.”
In fact, as Mortimer Collins satirically, yet amusingly, wrote:--
“There was an APE, in the days that were earlier;
Centuries passed, and his hair became curlier,
Centuries more gave a thumb to his wrist,--
Then he was MAN, and a POSITIVIST.”
[Illustration]
The accompanying illustration, which seems to embody all the
requirements of Darwin, as representing our maternal progenitor, is from
an old book by Joannes Zahn, published in 1696--and there figures as
“Ourani Outains.”
[Illustration]
Darwin says that the men of the period wore tails, and if they were no
longer than that in this illustration (which is copied from the same
book), they can hardly be said to be unbecoming--still that is a matter
for taste--they are certainly more graceful than if they had been
rat-like, or like a greyhound, or toy terrier. Many old authors speak of
tailed men in Borneo and Java, and not only were men so adorned, but
women. Peter Martyr says that in a region called Inzaganin, there is a
tailed race--these laboured under the difficulty of being unable to move
them like animals--but as he observes, they were stiff like those of
fishes and crocodiles--so much so, that when they wanted to sit down,
they had to use seats with holes in them.
Ptolemy and Ctesias speak of them, and Pliny says there were men in
Ceylon who had long hairy tails, and were of remarkable swiftness of
foot. Marco Polo tells us: “Now you must know that in this kingdom of
Lambri[1] there are men with tails; these tails are of a palm in length,
and have no hair on them. These people live in the mountains, and are a
kind of wild men. Their tails are about the thickness of a dog’s.” Many
modern travellers have heard of hairy and tailed people in the Malay
Archipelago, and Mr. St. John, writing of Borneo, says that he met with
a trader who had seen and felt the tails of a race which inhabited the
north-east coast of the island. These tails were about four inches long,
and so stiff that they had to use perforated seats. The Chinese also
declare that in the mountains above Canton there is a race of tailed
men. M. de Couret wrote about the Niam Niams, tailed men, who, he says,
are living in Abyssinia or Nubia, having tails at least two inches long.
We all know the old Lord Monboddo’s theory that mankind had originally
tails--nay, he went further, and said that some were born with them
now--a fact which will be partially borne out by any military medical
inspecting officer, who in the course of his practice has met with men
whose “os coccygis” has been prolonged, so as to form a pseudo tail,
which would unfit the man for the cavalry, although he would still be
efficient as an infantry soldier.
Here is a very fine picture from a fresco at Pompeii representing tailed
men, or, maybe, æsthetic young Fauns, treading out the vintage.
[Illustration]
But tailed men are as nothing, compared to the wonderful beings that
peopled the earth in bygone times. It seems a pity that there are none
of them now living, and that, consequent upon never having seen them, we
are apt to imagine that they never existed, but were simply the
creatures of the writer’s brain. They were articles of belief until
comparatively recent times, and were familiar in Queen Elizabeth’s time,
as we learn from Othello’s defence of himself (Act i. sc. 3):--
“And of the Cannibals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.”
They were thoroughly believed in, a century or two previously, in
connection with Geography, and, in the “Mappa Mundi” (one of the
earliest preserved English maps), now in Hereford Cathedral, which dates
from the very early part of the fourteenth century, nearly the whole of
the fanciful men hereafter mentioned are pourtrayed.
[Illustration]
Sluper, who wrote in 1572, gives us the accompanying picture of a
Cyclope, with the following remarks:--
“De Polipheme & de Ciclopiens
Tout mention Poetes anciens:
On dit encor que ce lignage dure
Auec vn oeil selon ceste figure.”
Pliny places the Cyclopes “in the very centre of the earth, in Italy
and Sicily;” and very likely there they might have existed, if we can
bring ourselves to believe the very plausible explanation that they were
miners, whose lanthorn, or candle, stuck in cap, was their one eye. At
all events we may consider Sluper’s picture as somewhat of a fancy
portrait.
Among the Scythians, inhabiting the country beyond the Palus Mæotis, was
a tribe which Herodotus (although he has been christened “The father of
lies”) did not believe in, nor indeed in any one-eyed men, but Pliny,
living some 500 years after him, tells afresh the old story respecting
these wonderful human beings. “In the vicinity also of those who dwell
in the northern regions, and not far from the spot from which the north
wind arises, and the place which is called its cave, and is known by the
name of Geskleithron,[2] the Arimaspi are said to exist, a nation
remarkable for having but one eye, and that placed in the middle of the
forehead. This race is said to carry on a perpetual warfare with the
Griffins,[3] a kind of monster, with wings, as they are commonly
represented, for the gold which they dig out of the mines, and which
these wild beasts retain, and keep watch over with a singular degree of
cupidity, while the Arimaspi are equally desirous to get possession of
it.”
Milton mentions this tribe in “Paradise Lost,” Book 2.
“As when a Gryphon through the wilderness,
With winged course, o’er hill, or mossy dale,
Pursues the Arimaspian, who, by stealth,
Had from his wakeful custody purloin’d
The guarded gold.”
But there seems every probability that the story of the Gryphon was
invented by the goldfinders, in order to deter people from coming near
them, and interfering with their livelihood. There were, however,
smaller Arimaspians, which probably the Gryphons did not heed, for Pliny
tells us about the little thieves of mice. “In gold mines, too, their
stomachs are opened for this purpose, and some of the metal is always to
be found there, which they have pilfered, so great a delight do they
take in stealing!” Livy, also, twice mentions mice gnawing gold.
[Illustration]
There were Anthropophagi--cannibals--as there are now, but, of course,
they then lacked the luxury of cold missionary--and there were, besides,
many wonderful beings. “Beyond the other Scythian Anthropophagi, there
is a country called Abarimon, situate in a certain great valley of Mount
Imaus (_the Himalayas_), the inhabitants of which are a savage race,
whose feet are turned backwards, relatively to their legs; they possess
wonderful velocity, and wander about indiscriminately with the wild
beasts. We learn from Beeton, whose duty it was to take the measurements
of the routes of Alexander the Great, that this people cannot breathe in
any climate except their own, for which reason it is impossible to take
them before any of the neighbouring kings; nor could any of them be
brought before Alexander himself.
The Anthropophagi, whom we have previously mentioned as dwelling ten
days’ journey beyond the Borysthenes (_the Dneiper_), according to the
account of Isogonus of Nicæa, were in the habit of drinking out of human
skulls, and placing the scalps, with the hair attached, upon their
breasts, like so many napkins. The same author relates that there is, in
Albania, a certain race of men, whose eyes are of a sea-green colour,
and who have white hair from their earliest childhood (_Albinos_), and
that these people see better in the night than in the day. He states
also that the Sauromatæ, who dwell ten days’ journey beyond the
Borysthenes, only take food every other day.
Crates of Pergamus relates, that there formerly existed in the vicinity
of Parium, in the Hellespont (_Camanar, a town of Asia Minor_), a race
of men whom he calls Ophiogenes, and that by their touch they were able
to cure those who had been stung by serpents, extracting the poison by
the mere imposition of the hand. Varro tells us, that there are still a
few individuals in that district, whose saliva effectually cures the
stings of serpents. The same, too, was the case with the tribe of the
Psylli, in Africa, according to the account of Agatharcides; these
people received their name from Psyllus, one of their kings, whose tomb
is in existence, in the district of the Greater Syrtes (_Gulf of
Sidra_). In the bodies of these people, there was, by nature, a certain
kind of poison, which was fatal to serpents, and the odour of which
overpowered them with torpor; with them it was a custom to expose
children, immediately after their birth, to the fiercest serpents, and
in this manner to make proof of the fidelity of their wives; the
serpents not being repelled by such children as were the offspring of
adultery. This nation, however, was almost entirely extirpated by the
slaughter made of them, by the Nasamones, who now occupy their
territory. This race, however, still survives in a few persons, who are
descendants of those who either took to flight, or else were absent on
the occasion of the battle. The Marsi, in Italy, are still in possession
of the same power, for which, it is said, they are indebted to their
origin from the son of Circe, from whom they acquired it as a natural
quality. But the fact is, that all men possess, in their bodies, a
poison which acts upon serpents, and the human saliva, it is said, makes
them take to flight, as though they had been touched with boiling water.
The same substance, it is said, destroys them the moment it enters their
throat, and more particularly so, if it should be the saliva of a man
who is fasting.
Above the Nasamones (_living near the Gulf of Sidra_), and the Machlyæ,
who border upon them, are found, as we learn from Calliphanes, the
nation of the Androgyni, a people who unite the two sexes in the same
individual, and alternately perform the functions of each. Aristotle
also states, that their right breast is that of a male, the left that of
a female.
Isigonus and Nymphodorus inform us that there are, in Africa, certain
families of enchanters, who, by means of their charms, in form of
commendations, can cause cattle to perish, trees to wither, and infants
to die. Isigonus adds, that there are, among the Triballi, and the
Illyrii, some persons of this description, who, also, have the power of
fascination with the eyes, and can even kill those on whom they fix
their gaze for any length of time, more especially if their look denotes
anger: the age of puberty is said to be particularly obnoxious to the
malign influence of such persons.
A still more remarkable circumstance is, the fact that these persons
have two pupils in each eye. Apollonides says, that there are certain
females of this description in Scythia, who are known as Bythiæ, and
Phylarcus states that a tribe of the Thibii in Pontus, and many other
persons as well, have a double pupil in one eye, and in the other the
figure of a horse. He also remarks, that the bodies of these persons
will not sink in water, even though weighed down by their garments.
Damon gives an account of a race of people, not very much unlike them,
the Pharnaces of Æthiopia, whose perspiration is productive of
consumption to the body of every person that it touches. Cicero also,
one of our own writers, makes the remark, that the glance of all women
who have a double pupil is noxious.
To this extent, then, has nature, when she produced in man, in common
with the wild beasts, a taste for human flesh, thought fit to produce
poisons as well in every part of his body, and in the eyes of some
persons, taking care that there shall be no evil influence in existence,
which was not to be found in the human body. Not far from Rome, in the
territory of the Falisci, a few families are found, who are known by the
name of Hirpi. These people perform a yearly sacrifice to Apollo, on
Mount Soracte, on which occasion they walk over a burning pile of wood,
without being scorched even. On this account, by virtue of a decree of
the Senate, they are always exempted from military service, and from all
other public duties.
Some individuals, again, are born with certain parts of the body endowed
with properties of a marvellous nature. Such was the case with King
Pyrrhus, the great toe of whose right foot cured diseases of the spleen,
merely by touching the patient. We are informed that this toe could not
be reduced to ashes together with the other portions of his body; upon
which it was placed in a temple.
India and the region of Æthiopia, more especially, abounds in wonders.
In India the largest of animals are produced; their dogs, for instance,
are much bigger than those of any other country. The trees, too, are
said to be of such vast height that it is impossible to send an arrow
over them. This is the result of the singular fertility of the soil, the
equable temperature of the atmosphere, and the abundance of water;
which, if we are to believe what is said, are such, that a single fig
tree (_the banyan tree_) is capable of affording shelter to a whole
troop of horse. The reeds here (_bamboos_) are of such enormous length,
that each portion of them, between the joints, forms a tube, of which a
boat is made that is capable of holding three men. It is a well-known
fact, that many of the people here are more than five cubits in
height.[4] These people never expectorate, are subject to no pains,
either in the head, the teeth, and the eyes, and, rarely, in any other
parts of the body; so well is the heat of the sun calculated to
strengthen the constitution.... According to the account of Megasthenes,
dwelling upon a mountain called Nulo, there is a race of men who have
their feet turned backwards, with eight toes on each foot.
On many of the mountains again, there is a tribe of men who have the
heads of dogs, and clothe themselves with the skins of wild beasts.
Instead of speaking, they bark; and, furnished with claws, they live by
hunting, and catching birds. According to the story, as given by
Ctesias, the number of these people is more than a hundred and twenty
thousand; and the same author tells us that there is a certain race in
India, of which the females are pregnant once only in the course of
their lives, and that the hair of the children becomes white the instant
they are born. He speaks also of another race of men who are known as
Monocoli,[5] who have only one leg, but are able to leap with surprising
agility. The same people are also called Sciapodæ,[6] because they are
in the habit of lying on their backs, during the time of extreme heat,
and protect themselves from the sun by the shade of their feet. These
people, he says, dwell not very far from the Troglodytæ (_dwellers in
caves_); to the west of whom again there is a tribe who are without
necks, and have eyes in their shoulders.[7]
Among the mountainous districts of the eastern parts of India, in what
is called the country of the Catharcludi, we find the Satyr, an animal
of extraordinary swiftness. These go sometimes on four feet, and
sometimes walk erect; they have also the features of a human being. On
account of their swiftness, these creatures are never to be caught,
except that they are aged, or sickly. Tauron gives the name of
Choromandæ to a nation which dwells in the woods, and have no proper
voice. These people screech in a frightful manner; their bodies are
covered with hair, their eyes are of a sea-green colour, and their teeth
like those of a dog. Eudoxus tells us, that in the southern parts of
India, the men have feet a cubit in length, while the women are so
remarkably small that they are called Struthpodes.[8]
Megasthenes places among the Nomades of India, a people who are called
Scyritæ. These have merely holes in their faces instead of nostrils, and
flexible feet, like the body of the serpent. At the very extremity of
India, on the eastern side, near the source of the river Ganges, there
is the nation of the Astomi, a people who have no mouths; their bodies
are rough and hairy, and they cover themselves with a down[9] plucked
from the leaves of trees. These people subsist only by breathing, and by
the odours which they inhale through the nostrils. They support
themselves neither upon meat nor drink; when they go upon a long journey
they only carry with them various odoriferous roots and flowers, and
wild apples, that they may not be without something to smell at. But an
odour, which is a little more powerful than usual, easily destroys
them....
Isogonus informs us that the Cyrni, a people of India, live to their
four-hundredth year; and he is of opinion that the same is the case also
with the Æthiopian Macrobii,[10] the Seræ, and the inhabitants of Mount
Athos. In the case of these last, it is supposed to be owing to the
flesh of vipers, which they use as food; in consequence of which they
are free also from all noxious animals, both in their hair and their
garments.
[Illustration]
According to Onesicritus, in those parts of India where there is no
shadow, the men attain the height of five cubits and two palms,[11] and
their life is prolonged to one hundred and thirty years; they die
without any symptoms of old age, and just as if they were in the middle
period of life. Pergannes calls the Indians, whose age exceeds one
hundred years, by the name of Gymnetæ;[12] but not a few authors style
them Macrobii. Ctesias mentions a tribe of them, known by the name of
Pandore, whose locality is in the valleys, and who live to their
two-hundredth year; their hair is white in youth, and becomes black in
old age. On the other hand, there are some people joining up to the
country of the Macrobii, who never live beyond their fortieth year, and
their females have children once only during their lives. This
circumstance is also mentioned by Agatharchides, who states, in
addition, that they live on locusts, and are very swift of foot.
Clitarchus and Megasthenes give these people the name of Mandi, and
enumerate as many as three hundred villages which belong to them. Their
women are capable of bearing children in the seventh year of their age,
and become old at forty.
Artemidorus states that in the island of Taprobane (_Ceylon_) life is
prolonged to an extreme length, while at the same time, the body is
exempt from weakness. Among the Calingæ, a nation also of India, the
women conceive at five years of age, and do not live beyond their eighth
year. In other places again, there are men born with long hairy tails,
and of remarkable swiftness of foot; while there are others that have
ears so large as to cover the whole body.
Crates of Pergamus states, that the Troglodytæ, who dwell beyond
Æthiopia, are able to outrun the horse; and that a tribe of the
Æthiopians, who are known as the Syrbotæ, exceed eight cubits in height
(_twelve feet_). There is a tribe of Æthiopian Nomades dwelling on the
banks of the river Astragus, towards the north, and about twenty days’
journey from the ocean. These people are called Menismini; they live on
the milk of the animal which we call cynocephalus (_baboon_), and rear
large flocks of these creatures, taking care to kill the males, except
such as they may preserve for the purposes of breeding. In the deserts
of Africa, men are frequently seen to all appearance, and then vanish in
an instant.”[13]
It may be said that these descriptions of men are only the belief about
the time of the Christian era, when Pliny lived--but it was the faith of
centuries, and we find, 1200 years after Pliny died, Sir John Mandeville
confirming his statements, and, as before stated, these wondrous
creatures were given in illustrations, both in the Mappa Mundi, and in
early printed books. Mandeville writes: “Many divers countreys &
kingdoms are in Inde, and it is called Inde, of a river that runneth
through it, which is called Inde also, and there are many precious
stones in that river Inde. And in that ryver men finde Eles of xxx foote
long, & men y^t dwell nere that river are of evill colour, yelowe &
grene....
“Then there is another yle that men call Dodyn, & it is a great yle. In
this yle are maner diverse of men y^t have evyll maners, for the father
eateth the son, & the son the father, the husband his wyfe, and the wyfe
hir husbande. And if it so be that the father be sicke, or the mother,
or any frend, the sonne goeth soone to the priest of the law & prayeth
him that he will aske of the ydoll if his father shall dye of that
sicknesse, or not. And then the priest and the son kneele down before
the ydole devoutly, & asketh him, and he answereth to them, and if he
say that he shall lyve, then they kepe him wel, and if he say that he
shall dye, then commeth the priest with the son, or with the wyfe, or
what frende that it be unto him y^t is sicke, and they lay their hands
over his mouth to stop his breath, & so they sley him, & then they smite
all the body into peces, & praieth all his frendes for to come and eate
of him that is dead, and they make a great feste thereof, and have many
minstrels there, and eate him with great melody. And so when they have
eaten al y^e flesh, then they take the bones, and bury them all singing
with great worship, and all those that are of his frendes that were not
at the eating of him, have great shame and vylany, so that they shall
never more be taken as frends.
“And the king of this yle is a great lord and mightie, & he hath under
him liii greate Yles, and eche of them hath a king; and in one of these
yles are men that have but one eye, and that is in the middest of theyr
front, and they eat flesh & fishe all rawe. And in another yle dwell
men that have no heads, & theyr eyen are in theyr shoulders & theyr
mouth is on theyr breste. In another yle are men that have no head ne
eyen, and their mouth is in theyr shoulders. And in another yle are men
that have flatte faces, without nose, and without eyen, but they have
two small round holes in stede of eyen, and they have a flatte mouth
without lippes. And in that yle are men that have their faces all flat
without eyen, without mouth & without nose, but they have their eyen,
and their mouth, behinde on their shoulders.
“And in another yle are foule men that have the lippes about the mouth
so greate, that when they sleepe in the sonne they cover theyr face with
the lippe. And in another yle are little men, as dwarfes, and have no
mouth, but a lyttle rounde hole & through that hole they eate their
meate with a pipe, & they have no tongue, & they speake not, but they
blow & whistle, and so make signes one to another. And in another yle
are wild men with hanging eares unto their shoulders. And in another yle
are wild men, with hanging eares & have feete lyke an hors & they run
faste, & they take wild beastes, and eate them. And in another yle are
men that go on theyr handes & feete lyke beasts & are all rough, and
will leape upon a tree like cattes or apes. And in another yle are men
that go ever uppon theyr knees marvaylosly, and have on every foote viii
Toes....
“There is another yle that men call Pitan, men of this lande till no
lande, for they eate nought, and they are smal, but not so smal as
Pigmes. These men live with smell of wild aples, & when they go far out
of the countrey, they beare apples with them, for anon, as they lose
the savour of apples they dye--they are not reasonable, but as wyld
beastes. And there is another yle where the people are all fethers,[14]
but the face and the palmes of theyr handes, these men go as well about
the sea, as on the lande, and they eate flesh and fish all raw.... In
Ethiope are such men that have but one foote, and they go so fast y^t it
is a great marvaill, & that is a large fote, that the shadow thereof
covereth y^e body from son or rayne, when they lye upon their backes;
and when their children be first borne they loke like russet, and when
they waxe olde then they be all black.”
There were also elephant-headed men.
[Illustration]
In the olden times were men who did not build themselves houses--but
sheltered themselves in caves, fissures of rocks, &c., and many are the
remains we find of their flint implements, and the bones, which they
used to split in order to extract the marrow of the animals they had
slain with their rude flint arrows and spears. These, in classical
times, were called Troglodytes (from the Greek τρωγλοδὺται, _dwellers in
caves_). It was a generic term, although particularly applied to
uncivilised races on the banks of the Danube--those who dwelt on the
western coasts of the Red Sea--and Ethiopia. These latter could not have
led a particularly happy life, for Herodotus tells us that the
“Garamantes hunt the Ethiopian Troglodytes in four horse chariots; for
the Ethiopian Troglodytes are the swiftest of foot of all men of whom we
have heard any account given. The Troglodytes feed upon serpents and
lizards, and such kind of reptiles; they speak a language like no other,
but screech like bats.”
Pliny, as we have seen, speaks of an adder eating people, whose food
enables them to achieve extraordinary longevity, and Mandeville tells us
that “From this yle, men go to an yle that is called Tracota, where all
men are as beastes, & not reasonable, they dwell in caves, for they have
not wyt to make them houses--they eate adders, and they speake not, but
they make such a noyse as adders doe one to another, and they make no
force of ryches, but of a stone that hath forty colours, and it is
called Traconyt after that yle, they know not the vertue thereof, but
they covete it for the great fayreness.”
This stone was probably some kind of agate. It could not possibly have
been a topaz, as some have thought, as the context from Pliny will show.
“Topazos is a stone that is still held in very high estimation for its
green tints; indeed, when first it was discovered, it was preferred to
every other kind of precious stone. It so happened that some Troglodytic
pirates, suffering from tempest and hunger, having landed upon an island
off the coast of Arabia, known as Cytis, when digging there for roots
and grass, discovered this precious stone; such, at least, is the
opinion expressed by Archelaüs. Juba says that there is an island in
the Red Sea called _Topazos_, at a distance of three hundred stadia
from the mainland; that it is surrounded by fogs, and is often sought by
navigators in consequence; and that, to this, it received its present
name, the word _Topazin_[15] meaning “to seek” in the language of the
Troglodytæ.... At a later period a statue, four cubits in height, was
made of this stone.... Topazos is the largest of all the precious
stones.”
This shows that the Troglodytæ of Ethiopia had some commercial energy,
and they did a good trade in myrrh and other condiments. Pliny says that
the Troglodytæ traded among other things in cinnamon. They “after buying
it of their neighbours, carry it over vast tracts of sea, upon rafts,
which are neither steered by rudder nor drawn or impelled by oars or
sails. Nor yet are they aided by any of the resources of art, man alone,
and his daring boldness, standing in the place of all these; in addition
to which, they choose the winter season, about the time of the equinox,
for their voyage, for then a south-easterly wind is blowing; these winds
guide them in a straight course from gulf to gulf, and after they have
doubled the promontory of Arabia, the north-east wind carries them to a
port of the Gebanitæ, known by the name of Ocilia. Hence it is that they
steer for this port in preference, and they say that it is almost five
years before the merchants are able to effect their return, while many
perish on the voyage. In return for their wares, they bring back
articles of glass and copper, cloths, buckles, bracelets, and necklaces;
hence it is that this traffic depends more particularly upon the
capricious tastes and inclinations of the female sex.”
This shows that some, at least, of the Troglodytes had a commercial
spirit, and were in a comparative state of civilisation; in fact the
latter is thoroughly proved, when, a little later on, Pliny speaks of
Myrobalanum, “Among these various kinds, that which is sent from the
country of the Troglodytæ is the worst of all,” thus showing that they
had reached the civilised pitch of adulteration! There are also several
notices of peculiarities connected with this people, which deserve a
passing glance. They had turtles with horns (or more probably fore-feet)
which resembled the branches of a lyre; with these they swam. These were
in all likelihood the tortoise-shell turtles, for they called them
_Chelyon_. The Troglodytæ worshipped them. Their cattle were not like
other oxen, for their horns pointed downwards to the ground, so that
they were obliged to feed with their heads on one side. These oxen
should have been crossed with those of Phrygia, whose horns were as
mobile as their ears. And they were the happy possessors of a lake,
called the _Unhealthy Lake_, which thrice a day became salt and bitter,
and then again fresh, and this went on both day and night. We can hardly
wonder that this _Lacus Insanus_ was full of white serpents thirty feet
long.
AMAZONS.
The race of Amazons or fighting women, is not yet extinct, as the
chronicles of every police court can tell, and as an organised body of
warlike soldiers--the King of Dahomey still keeps them up, or did until
very recently. According to Herodotus, the Greeks, after having routed
the Amazons, sailed away in three ships, taking with them as many
Amazons, as they had been able to capture alive--but, when fairly out at
sea, the ladies arose, stood up for women’s rights, and cut all the
Greeks in pieces. But they had not reckoned on one little thing, and
that was, that none among them had the slightest idea of navigation;
they couldn’t even steer or row--so they had to drift about, until they
came to Cremni (supposed to be near _Taganrog_), which was Scythian
territory. They signalised their landing by horse-stealing, and the
Scythians, not appreciating the joke, gave them battle, thinking they
were men; but an examination of the dead proved them to be of the other
sex. On learning this, the Scythians were far too gentlemanly to
continue the strife, and, little by little, they established the most
friendly relations with the Amazons. These ladies, however, objected to
go to the Scythians’ homes, for, as they pertinently put it, “We never
could live with the women of your county, because we have not the same
customs with them. We shoot with the bow, throw the javelin, and ride on
horseback, and have never learnt the employments of women. But your
women do none of the things we have mentioned, but are engaged in
women’s work, remaining in their wagons, and do not go out to hunt, or
anywhere else; we could not therefore consort with them. If, then, you
desire to have us for your wives, and to prove yourselves honest men, go
to your parents, claim your share of their property, then return, and
let us live by ourselves.”
This the young Scythians did, but, when they returned, the Amazons said
they were afraid to stop where they were, for they had deprived parents
of their sons, and besides, had committed depredations in the country,
so that they thought it but prudent to leave, and suggested that they
should cross the Tanais, or _Don_, and found a colony on the other side.
This their husbands acceded to, and when they were settled, their wives
returned to their old way of living--hunting, going to war with their
husbands, and wearing the same clothes--in fact they enjoyed an actual
existence, of which many women nowadays, fondly, but vainly dream. There
was a little drawback however--the qualification for a young lady’s
presentation at court, consisted of killing a man, and, until that was
effected, she could not marry.
Sir John Mandeville of course knew all about them, although he does not
pretend to have seen them, and this is what he tells us. “After the land
of Caldee, is the land of Amazony, that is a land where there is no man
but all women, as men say, for they wil suffer no man to lyve among
them, nor to have lordeshippe over them. For sometyme was a kinge in
that lande, and men were dwelling there as did in other countreys, and
had wives, & it befell that the kynge had great warre with them of
Sychy, he was called Colopius, and he was slaine in bataill and all the
good bloude of his lande. And this Queene, when she herd that, & other
ladies of that land, that the king and the lordes were slaine, they
gathered them togither and killed all the men that were lefte in their
lande among them, and sithen that time dwelled no man among them.
“And when they will have any man, they sende for them in a countrey that
is nere theyr lande, and the men come, and are ther viii dayes, or as
the woman lyketh, & then they go againe, and if they have men children
they send them to theyr fathers, when they can eate & go, and if they
have maide chyldren they kepe them, and if they bee of gentill bloud
they brene[16] the left pappe[17] away, for bearing of a shielde, and,
if they be of little bloud, they brene the ryght pappe away for shoting.
For those women of that countrey are good warriours, and are often in
soudy[18] with other lordes, and the queene of that lande governeth well
that lande; this lande is all environed with water.”
PYGMIES.
The antitheses of men--Dwarfs, and Giants--must not be overlooked, as
they are abnormal, and yet have existed in all ages. Dwarfs are
mentioned in the Bible, _Leviticus_ xxi. 20, where following the
injunction of “Let him not approach to offer the bread of his God”--are
mentioned the “crookbackt or dwarf.” Dwarfs in all ages have been made
the sport of Royalty, and the wealthy; but it is not of them I write,
but of a race called the Pygmies, very small men who were descended from
Pygmæus. They are noted in the earliest classics, for even Homer
mentions them in his Iliad (B. 3, l. 3-6), which Pope translates:--
“So, when inclement winter vex the plain
With piercing frosts, or thick descending rain,
To warmer seas, the Cranes embody’d fly,
With noise, and order, through the mid-way sky;
To pigmy nations, wounds and death they bring,
And all the war descends upon the wing.”
Homer also wrote a poem, “Pygmæogeranomachia,” about the Pygmies and
Cranes. The accompanying illustration is from a fresco at Pompeii.
[Illustration]
Aristotle says that they lived in holes under the earth, and came out in
the harvest time with hatchets, to cut down the corn, as if to fell a
forest, and went on goats and lambs of proportionable stature to
themselves to make war against certain birds, called Cranes by some,
which came there yearly from Scythia to plunder them. Pliny mentions
them several times, but especially in B. 7, c. 2. “Beyond these people,
and at the very extremity of the mountains, the Trispithami,[19] and
the Pygmies are said to exist; two races, which are but three spans in
height, that is to say, twenty-seven inches only. They enjoy a
salubrious atmosphere, and a perpetual spring, being sheltered by the
mountains from the northern blasts; it is these people that Homer has
mentioned as being waged war upon by Cranes. It is said that they are in
the habit of going down every spring to the sea-shore, in a large body,
seated on the backs of rams and goats, and armed with arrows, and there
destroy the eggs and the young of those birds; that this expedition
occupies them for the space of three months, and that otherwise it would
be impossible for them to withstand the increasing multitudes of the
Cranes. Their cabins, it is said, are built of mud, mixed with feathers
and egg shells.”
[Illustration]
Mandeville thus describes them. “When men passe from that citie of
Chibens, they passe over a great river of freshe water, and it is nere
iiii mile brode, & then men enter into the lande of the great Caan. This
river goeth through the land of Pigmeens, and there men are of little
stature, for they are but three span long, and they are right fayre,
both men and women, though they bee little, and they live but viii[20]
yeare, and he that liveth viii yeare is holden right olde, and these
small men are the best workemen in sylke, and of cotton, in all maner of
thing that are in the worlde; and these smal men travail not, nor tyl
land, but they have amonge them great men, as we are, to travaill for
them, & they have great scorne of those great men, as we would have of
giaunts, or, of them, if they were among us.”
Ser Marco Polo warns his readers against _pseudo_ Pygmies. Says he: “I
may tell you moreover that when people bring over pygmies which they
allege to come from India, ’tis all a lie and a cheat. For those little
men, as they call them, are manufactured on this Island (_Sumatra_), and
I will tell you how. You see there is on the Island a kind of monkey
which is very small, and has a face just like a man’s. They take these,
and pluck out all the hair, except the hair of the beard, and on the
breast, and then dry them, and stuff them, and daub them with saffron,
and other things, until they look like men. But you see it is all a
cheat; for nowhere in India, nor anywhere else in the world, were there
ever men seen so small as these pretended pygmies.”
But there are much more modern mention of these small folk. Olaus Magnus
not only reproduces the classical story, but tells of the Pygmies of
Greenland--the modern Esquimaux. These are also mentioned in Purchas his
Pilgrimage, as living in Iceland, “pigmies represent the most perfect
shape of man; that they are hairy to the uttermost joynts of the
fingers, and that the males have beards downe to the knees; but,
although they have the shape of men, yet they have little sense or
understanding, nor distinct speech, but make shew of a kinde of hissing,
after the manner of geese.”
But to bring the history of pygmies down to modern times--I quote from
“Giants and Dwarfs,” by E. J. Wood, 1868, and I am thus particular in
giving my authority, as the news comes from America, whence, sometimes,
fact is mixed with fiction (pp. 246, 247, 248). “It is alleged by
contemporary newspapers, that in 1828 several burying-grounds, from half
an acre to an acre and a half in extent, were discovered in the county
of White, state of Tennessee, near the town of Sparta, wherein very
small people had been deposited in tombs or coffins of stone. The
greatest length of the skeletons was nineteen inches. The bones were
strong and well set, and the whole frames were well formed. Some of the
people appeared to have lived to a great age, their teeth being worn
smooth and short, while others were full and long. The graves were about
two feet deep; the coffins were of stone, and made by laying a flat
stone at the bottom, one at each side, or each end, and one over the
corpse. The dead were all buried with their heads toward the east, and
in regular order, laid on their backs, and with their hands on their
breasts. In the bend of the left arm was found a cruse, or vessel, that
would hold nearly a pint, made of ground stone, or shell, of a grey
colour, in which were found two or three shells. One of these skeletons
had about its neck ninety-four pearl beads. Near one of these
burying-places was the appearance of the site of an ancient town.
Webber, in his ‘Romance of Natural History,’ refers to the diminutive
sarcophagi found in Kentucky and Tennessee; and he describes these
receptacles to be about three feet in length, by eighteen inches deep,
and constructed, bottom, sides, and top, of flat, unhewn stones. These
he conjectures to be the places of sepulture of a pigmy race, that
became extinct at a period beyond reach even of the tradition of the
so-called Indian aborigines.