Chapter II: Preface (2)

Wolff says they stand in awe of their bigger neighbours, but are so brave and cunning that, with all the odds of physique against them, the pigmies are masters of the situation.

GIANTS.

This last sentence seems almost a compendium of _The History of Tom Thumb_, for his wit enabled him to overcome the lubber-headed giants, in every conflict he was engaged in with them--they were no match for him. Take the Romances of Chivalry. Pacolet, and all the dwarfs, were endowed with acute wits, and there was very little they could not compass--but the giants! their ultimate fate was always to be slain by some knight, and their imprisoned knights and damsels set free. A dwarf was a cleanly liver, but a giant was turbulent, quarrelsome, lustful, and occasionally cannibal. Fe Fi Fo Fum was the type of colossal man, and, as it is quite a pleasure to whitewash their characters in these respects, I hasten to do so before further discoursing on the subject of these great men.

It is Olaus Magnus who thus tells us

“Of the sobriety of Giants and Champions.”

“That most famous Writer of the _Danish_ affairs, _Saxo_, alleged before, and who shall be often alleged hereafter, saith, that amongst other mighty strong men in the _North_, who were as great as Giants, there was one _Starchaterus Thavestus_, whose admirable and heroick Vertues are so worthily extolled by him, that there were scarce any like him in those dayes in all _Europe_, or in the whole World, or hardly are now, or ever shall be. And amongst other Vertues he ascribes to that high-spirited man, he mentions his sobriety, which is principally necessary for valiant men: and I thought fit to annex that peculiarly to this relation, that we may, as in a glass, see more cleerly the luxury of this lustful age. For, as the same _Saxo_ testifies, that valiant _Starchaterus_ loved frugality, and loved not immoderate dainties. Alwayes neglecting pleasure, he respected Vertue, imitating the antient manner of Continency, and he desired a homely provision of his Diet; he hated costly suppers; wherefore hating profusion in Diet, and feeding on smoaked and rank meat, he drove away Hunger, with the greater appetite, as his meat was but of one kind, lest he should remit and abate the force of his true Vertue, by the contagion of outward Delights, as by some adulterate sweetness, or should abrogate the Rule of antient Frugality, by unusual Superstitions for Gluttony. Moreover, he could not endure to spend rost and boyled meat all at one Meal; holding that to be a monstrous Food, that Cookery had tampered with divers things together: Wherefore, that he might turn away the Luxury of the _Danes_, that they borrowed from the _Germans_, that made them so effeminate, amongst the rest he made Verses in his Country Language.” Omitting many of them, he sang thus:

“_Starchaterus_ his Verses on _Frugality_.

“Strong men do love raw meat; nor do they need,
Or love, on dainty Cates and Feasts to feed,
War is the thing they most delight to breed,
You may sooner bite off their beards that are
Full hard, and stiff with bristled, rugged, hair,
Than their wide mouths leave Milk their daily fare:
We fly from dainty Kitchins, and do fill
Our Bellies with rank Meats, and Countray swill,
Of old, men fed on boyl’d Meats, ’gainst their will.
A dish of Grass, that had no smack, did hold
Hog’s and sheep’s flesh together, hot or cold,
Nor to pollute their meats with mingling were they bold;
He that eats Cream we bid him for to be
Strong, and to have a mind that’s bold and free.

* * * * *

Eleven Lords of elder time we were,
That waited on King Hachon, and at fare
_Helgo Begachus_ sat first in order there.
First dish he eat was a dry’d Gammon, and
A Crust as hard as Flint he took in hand,
This made his hungry, yawning stomach stand:
No man at Table fed on stinking meat,
But what was good and common, each man eat,
Content with simple fare, though nere so great;
The greatest were not Gluttons, nor yet fine,
The King himself full sparingly would dine.
No Drinks were used that did of Honey bost,
Beer was their common Liquor, _Ceres_ owest,
They fed on Meats were little boyl’d, no rost.
Each Table was with Meats but meanly drest,
Few Dishes on’t, Antiquity thought best;
And in plain Fare each held himself most blest.
There were no Flagons, nor broad Bowls in use,
Nor painted Dishes grown to great abuse,
Each, at the Tap, did fill his wooden cruze.
No man, admirer of the former days,
Did use Tankards or Oxeys;[22] for their ways
Were sparing, almost empty Dishes this bewrays.
No Silver Basons, or guilt Cups were thought
Fit by the Host, and to the table brought,
To garnish, or by Ghests were vainly sought.”

By precept, and example, he induced many to Temperance and Sobriety--but, in spite of his moderation in food and drink, he was a most outrageous pirate, and Berserker.

At last, however, old, and weary of life, he sought death, and meeting Hatherus, son of a noble whom he had killed, begged him as a favour to cut his head off--and the young man, obligingly consenting, his head was severed from his body, and literally bit the ground. There are records of many more Northern giants, but none of so edifying a life as Starchaterus.

Giants are plentiful in the Bible, the Emins, Anakims, and the Zamzummims: there was Og, King of Bashan, whose iron bedstead was 9 cubits long by 4 broad--_i.e._, 13 ft. 6 in. by 6 ft. That redoubtable champion of the Philistines, Goliath of Gath, was six cubits and a span high--_i.e._, 9 ft. 9 in. In 2 Samuel xxi. 15-22, we find mention made of many giants.

“15 Moreover the Philistines had yet war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines; and David waxed faint.

“16 And Ishbi-benob, which was of the sons of the giants, the weight of whose spear weighed three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being girded with a new sword, thought to have slain David.

“17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah succoured him, and smote the Philistine, and killed him....

“18 And it came to pass after this, that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob: then Sibbechai the Hushathite slew Saph, which was of the sons of the giant.

“19 And there was again a battle in Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim, a Bethlehemite, slew the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam.

“20 And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.

“21 And when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimeah, the brother of David, slew him.

“22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.”

But these were mere pigmies if we can believe M. Henrion, who in 1718 calculated out the heights of divers notable persons--thus he found Adam was 121 ft. 9 in. high, Eve 118 ft. 9 in., Noah 27 ft., Abraham 20 ft., and Moses 13 ft.

Putting aside the mythical classical giants, Pliny says: “The tallest man that has been seen in our times, was one Gabbaras by name, who was brought from Arabia by the Emperor Claudius; his height was nine feet and as many inches. In the reign of Augustus, there were two persons, Posio and Secundilla, by name, who were half a foot taller than him; their bodies have been preserved as objects of curiosity in the Museum of the Sallustian family.”

But it is reserved to Sir John Mandeville to have found the tallest giants of, comparatively speaking, modern times. “And beyond that valey is a great yle, where people as great as giaunts of xxviii fote long, and they have no clothinge but beasts skyns that hang on them, and they eate no bread, but flesh raw, and drink milke, and they have no houses, & they ate gladlyer fleshe of men, than other, & men saye to us that beyonde that yle is an yle where are greater giaunts as xlv or l fote long, & some said l cubits long (_75 feet_) but I saw them not, and among those giaunts are great shepe, and they beare great wolle, these shepe have I sene many times.”

EARLY MEN.

On the antiquity of man it is impossible to speculate, because we have no data to go upon. We know that his earliest existence, of which we have any cognisance, must have been at a period when the climate and fauna of the Western continent was totally different to their present state. Then roamed over the land, the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, the Bos-primigenius, the reindeer, the cave bear, the brown and the Arctic bears, the cave hyæna, and many other animals now quite extinct. We know that man then existed, because we find his handiwork in the shape of manufactured flint implements, mixed with the bones of these animals--and, occasionally, with them human remains have been found, but, as yet, no perfect skull has been found. There were two types of man, the Dolicho Cephalous, or long-headed, and the Brachy Cephalous, or round-headed--and, of these, the long-headed were of far greater antiquity.

All we can do is to classify man’s habitation of this earth, as well as we can, under certain well-defined, and known conditions. Thus, that called the Stone Age, must be divided into two parts, that of the roughly chipped flint implements--which is designated the _Palæolithic_ period--and that of the polished and carefully finished stone arms and implements, which necessarily show a later time, and a higher state of civilisation--which is called the _Neolithic_ period. The next age is that of bronze, when man had learned to smelt metals, and make moulds, showing a great advance--and, finally, the Iron Age, in which man had subdued the sterner metal to his will--and this age immediately precedes History.

The cave men were of undoubted antiquity--and were hunters of the wild beasts that then overran Western Europe, and who split the bones of those animals which they slew in order to obtain the marrow. Although strictly belonging to the Palæolithic period, they manufactured out of that stubborn material, flint, spear-heads, knives, scrapers--and, when the bow had been invented, arrow-heads. Nor were they deficient in the rudiments of art, as some tracings and carvings on pieces of the horns of slaughtered animals, clearly show. Mr. Christie in digging in the Dordogne caves found, at La Madelaine, engraved and carved pictures of reindeer, an ibex, a mammoth, &c., all of them recognisable, and the mammoth, a very good likeness. This was incised on a piece of mammoth tusk.

The lake men, judging by the remains found near their dwellings, occupied their houses during the Stone and Bronze periods. Herodotus mentions these curious dwellings. “But those around Mount Pangæus and near the Doberes, the Agrianæ, Odomanti, and those who inhabit Lake Prasias[23] itself, were not at all subdued by Megabazus. Yet he attempted to conquer those who live upon the lake, in dwellings contrived after this manner: planks, fitted on lofty piles, are placed in the middle of the lake, with a narrow entrance from the mainland by a single bridge. These piles that support the planks, all the citizens anciently placed there at the common charge; but, afterwards, they established a law to the following effect; whenever a man marries, for each wife he sinks three piles, bringing wood from a mountain called Orbelus; but every man has several wives. They live in the following manner; every man has a hut on the planks, in which he dwells, with a trap door closely fitted in the planks, and leading down to the lake. They tie the young children with a cord round the foot, fearing lest they should fall into the lake beneath. To their horses and beasts of burden they give fish for fodder; of which there is such an abundance, that, when a man has opened his trap-door, he lets down an empty basket by a cord into the lake, and, after waiting a short time, draws it up full of fish.”[24]

Here, then, we have a valuable record of the lake dwellings, and similar ones have been found in the lake of Zurich. In 1854, owing to the dryness and cold of the preceding winter, the water fell a foot below any previous record: and, in a small bay between Ober Meilen and Dollikon, the inhabitants took advantage to reclaim the soil thus left, and add it to their gardens, by building a wall as far out as they could--and they raised the level of the land thus gained, by dredging the mud out of the lake. In the course of dredging they found deer horns, tiles and various implements, and, the attention of an antiquary having been directed to this find, he concluded that it was the site of an ancient lake village. The lakes of Geneva, Constance, and Neufchatel, have also yielded much that throws light on the habits and intelligence of these lake men. They wove, they made pottery, they grew and parched corn--nay they ground it, and made biscuits, they ate apples, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, hazel and beech nuts, and peas. They evidently fed on cereals, fruit, fish, and the flesh of wild animals, for bones of the following animals have been found. Brown bear, badger, marten, pine marten, polecat, wolf, fox, wild cat, beaver, elk, urus, bison, stag, roe-deer, wild boar, marsh boar--whilst their domestic animals were the boar, horse, ox, goat, sheep, and dog. These, it must be remembered, range over a wide period, including the stone and bronze ages. They wore ornaments, too, for pins, and bracelets have been found. Lake dwellings have been found in Scotland, England, Italy, Germany and France--so that this practice seems to have obtained very widely. In Ireland they made artificial islands in the lakes, called Crannoges, on which they erected their dwellings. Pile dwellings now exist, and are inhabited in many parts of the world.

We have other traces of prehistoric man in the shell mounds, kjökkenmöddings, or kitchen middens, which still exist in Denmark, and have been found in Scotland on the shores of the Moray Firth and Loch Spynie; in Cornwall, and Devon, at St. Valéry at the mouth of the Somme, in Australia, Tierra del Fuego, the Malay Peninsula, the Andaman Islands, and North and South America, showing a very wide range. The Danish kjökkenmöddings, when first thoroughly noticed, (of course, in this century), were taken to be raised beaches--but when they were examined, it was found that the shells were of four species of molluscs or shell-fish,[25] that did not live together, and that they were either full-grown, or nearly so. A stricter examination was made, and the result was the finding of some flint implements, and bones marked by knives, conclusively showing that man had had a hand in this collection of shells--and the conclusion was come to that these were the sites of villages of a prehistoric man, a hypothesis which was fully borne out by the discovery, in some of them, of hearths bearing traces of having borne fire. Thus, then, these refuse heaps were clearly the work of a very ancient race, so poor, and backward, as to be obliged to live on shell-fish--and these mounds were made by the shells which they threw away.

We can find a very great analogy between them and the Tierra del Fuegans, when Darwin visited them, while with the surveying ships _Adventure_ and _Beagle_, a voyage which took from 1832 to 1836; and, when we read the following extracts from Darwin’s account of the expedition, we can fancy we have before us a vivid picture of the makers of the kitchen middens. “The inhabitants, living chiefly upon shell-fish, are obliged constantly to change their place of residence; but they return at intervals to the same spots, as is evident from the pile of old shells, which must often amount to some tons in weight. These heaps can be distinguished at a long distance by the bright green colour of certain plants which invariably grow on them.... The Fuegian wigwam resembles, in size and dimensions, a haycock. It merely consists of a few broken branches stuck in the ground, and very imperfectly thatched on one side, with a few tufts of grass and rushes. The whole cannot be so much as the work of an hour, and it is only used for a few days.... At a subsequent period, the _Beagle_ anchored for a couple of days under Wollaston Island, which is a short way to the northward. While going on shore, we pulled alongside a canoe with six Fuegians. These were the most abject and miserable creatures I anywhere beheld. On the east coast, the natives, as we have seen, have guanaco cloaks, and, on the west, they possess sealskins. Amongst the central tribes the men generally possess an otter skin, or some small scrap about as large as a pocket handkerchief, which is barely sufficient to cover their backs as low down as their loins. It is laced across the breast by strings, and, according as the wind blows, it is shifted from side to side. But these Fuegians in the canoe were quite naked, and even one full-grown woman was absolutely so. It was raining heavily, and the fresh water, together with the spray, trickled down her body.... These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gestures violent and without dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe they are fellow-creatures and inhabitants of the same world.... At night, five or six human beings, naked, and scarcely protected from the wind and rain of this tempestuous climate, sleep on the wet ground, coiled up like animals. Whenever it is low water, they must rise to pick shell-fish from the rocks; and the women, winter and summer, either dive and collect sea eggs, or sit patiently in their canoes, and, with a baited hair line, jerk out small fish. If a seal is killed, or the floating carcase of a putrid whale discovered, it is a feast: such miserable food is assisted by a few tasteless berries, and fungi. Nor are they exempt from famine, and, as a consequence, cannibalism accompanied by parricide.”

This I believe to be as faithful a picture as can be drawn of the makers of the shell mounds.

But in Denmark, although shells formed by far the major part of these middens, yet they ate other fish, the herring, dorse, dab, and eel. Birds also were not despised by them, bones of swallows, the sparrow, stork, capercailzie, ducks, geese, wild swans, and even of the great auk (now extinct) have been found. Then of beasts they ate the stag, roe-deer, wild boar, urus, dog, fox, wolf, marten, otter, lynx, wild cat, hedgehog, bear, and mouse; beside which they lived on the seal, porpoise, and water rat.

Owing to the almost total absence of polished implements--and yet the fact being that portions of one or two have been found--the makers of these kjökkenmöddings, are classed as belonging to the later Palæolithic period.

Of the Bronze and Iron Ages there is no necessity to write, men were emerging from their primæval barbarity--and all the gentle arts, though undeveloped, were nascent. Men who could smelt metals, and mould, and forge them, cannot be considered as utter barbarians, such as were the long-headed men, with their chipped flint implements and weapons.

WILD MEN.

Sometimes a specimen of humanity has got astray in infancy, and has been dragged up somehow in the woods, like Caspar Hauser, and Peter the Wild Boy, and fiction supplies other instances, such as Romulus and Remus, Orson, &c. Some of them were credited with being hairy as are the accompanying wild man and woman, as they are portrayed in John Sluper’s book, where they are thus described:--

“L’HOMME SAUVAGE.

“Combien que Dieu le createur seul sage,
A fait user les hommes de raison:
Icy voyez un vray homme sauvage,
Son corps vela est en toute saison.”

“LA FEMME SAUVAGE.

“Femme sauvage a l’œil humain, non sainte,
Ainsi qu’elle est sur le naturel lieu,
Au naturel vous est icy depeinte,
Comme voyez qu’il appert a votre vue.”

When Cæsar came to Britain for the second time, he found the Britons, although to a great extent civilised, having cavalry and charioteers (so many of the latter, that Cassivelaunus left about 4000 to watch the Romans), and knowing the art of fortification, yet in themselves, only just emerging from utter barbarism--the colouring and shaving of themselves showed that they had vanity, and were making, after their fashion, the most of their personal charms. Cæsar (Book v. 14) writes: “Of all these _tribes_, by far the most civilised are those who inhabit Kent, which district is altogether maritime; nor do they differ much from the Gallic customs. Most of those in the interior do not sow corn, but live on flesh and milk, and are clad in skins. All the Britons, in truth, dye themselves with woad, which produces a bluish colour, and on this account they are of a more frightful aspect in battle. They have flowing hair, and every part of the body shaved, except the head and the upper lip. Ten, and _even_ twelve of them have wives in common between them, and chiefly brothers with brothers, and fathers with sons; but, if there is any offspring, they are considered to be the children of those by whom each virgin was first espoused.”

HAIRY MEN.

If, as we may conjecture from the above, the ancient Briton was “a rugged man, o’ergrown with hair,” his full-dress toilette must have occupied some time. But extreme hairiness in human beings is by no means singular, and very many cases are recorded in medical books. Many of us may remember the Spanish dancer, Julia Pastrana, whose whole body was hairy, and who had a fine beard. She had a child on whom the hair began to grow, like its mother; and, but a few years back, there was a hairy family exhibited in London--their faces being covered with hair, as is the case of the _Puella pilosa_, or Hairy Girl--given by Aldrovandus in his _Monstrorum Historia_.

She was aged twelve years, and came from the Canary Isles, together with her father (aged 40), her brother (20), and her sister (8), all as hairy one as the other. They were brought over by Marius Casalius, and first shown at Bologna, so that this is no doubt a faithful likeness, as Aldrovandus lived and died in that city. He gives other examples, but not so well authenticated as this.

There were two wonderful hairy people at Ava, in Burmah, who are described by two most trustworthy eye-witnesses, John Crawford, in his “Journal of an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava”--and in 1855, by Captain Henry Youle, in his “Narrative of the Mission sent by the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava.” They were father and daughter, respectively named Shu-Maon, and Maphoon. The father may strictly be said to have had neither eyelashes, eyebrows, nor beard, because the whole of his face, including the interior and exterior of his ears, were covered with long silky silvery grey hair. His whole body, except his hands and feet, was covered with hair of the same texture and colour as that now described, but generally less abundant; it was most plentiful over the spine and shoulders, where it was five inches long; over the breast, about four inches, and was most scanty on the arms, legs, thighs, and abdomen.

Of the daughter, Captain Youle writes: “The whole of Maphoon’s face was more or less covered with hair. On a part of the cheek, and between the nose and mouth, this was confined to a short down, but over all the rest of the face was a thick silky hair of a brown colour, paleing about the nose and chin, four or five inches long. At the alæ of the nose, under the eye, and on the cheek bone this was very fully developed; but it was in, and on, the ear, that it was most extraordinary. Except the upper tip, no part of the ear was visible. All the rest was filled and veiled with a large mass of silky hair, growing apparently out of every part of the external organ, and hanging a pendant lock to a length of eight or ten inches. The hair over her forehead was brushed so as to blend with the hair of the head, the latter being dressed (as usual with her countrywomen) _à la Chinoise_; it was not so thick as to conceal her forehead.

“The nose, densely covered with hair, as no animal’s is, that I know of, and with long locks curving out, and pendant like the wisps of a fine Skye-terrier’s coat, had a most strange appearance. The beard was pale in colour, and about four inches in length, seemingly very soft and silky.”

Maphoon, when Captain Youle saw her, had two children, one, the eldest, perfectly normal, the other, who was very young, was evidently taking after its mother.

The Aïnos, an aboriginal tribe in the north of Japan, who are looked down upon by the Japanese as dogs, have always been reputed as being covered with hair. Mr. W. Martin Wood read a paper before the Ethnological Society of London[26] respecting them, and he said, “Esau himself could not have been a more hairy man than are these Aïnos. The hair forms an enormous bush, and it is thick and matted. Their beards are very thick and long, and the greater part of their face is covered with hair which is generally dark in colour; they have prominent foreheads, and mild, dark eyes, which somewhat relieve the savage aspect of their visage. Their hands and arms, and, indeed, the greater part of their bodies, are covered with an abnormal profusion of hair.”

This, however, has been questioned, notably by Mr. Barnard Davis, whose paper may be read in the 3rd vol. of the “Memoirs of the Anthropological Society of London”--and he quotes from several travellers, to prove that the hairyness of the Aïnos had been exaggerated. However, Miss Bird in her “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan” may fairly be said to have put the subject at rest, for she visited, and travelled in the Aïno country. She, certainly, disproves the theory that, as a race, they were hairy, although she confesses that some were--as, for instance (p. 232), “They wore no clothing, but only one was hairy,” and, writing from Biratori, Yezo (p. 255), she says, “The men are about the middle height, broad-chested, broad-shouldered, thick set, very strongly built, the arms and legs short, thick, and muscular, the hands and feet large. The bodies, and especially the limbs of many, are covered with short, bristly hair. I have seen two boys whose backs are covered with fur as fine, and soft, as that of a cat.” Again (p. 283), “The profusion of black hair, and a curious intensity about their eyes, coupled with the hairy limbs and singularly vigorous _physique_, give them a formidably savage appearance; but the smile, full of ‘sweetness and light,’ in which both eyes and mouth bear part, and the low, musical voice, softer and sweeter than anything I have previously heard, make me, at times, forget that they are savages at all.”

THE OURAN OUTAN.

Transition from hirsute humanity to the apes, is easy, and natural--and we need only deal with the Simiinæ, which includes the Orang, the Chimpanzee, and the Gorilla. These are the largest apes, and nearest approach to man--but, although they may be tailless, yet there is that short great toe which prevents any acceptation of their humanity. The orang is exclusively an inhabitant of Borneo and Sumatra, and in those two islands it may be found in the swampy forests near the coast. It grows to a large size, for an ape, about four feet four inches high, but is neither so large, nor so strong, as the Gorilla. Compared with man, its arms seem to be as extravagantly long, as its legs are ridiculously short. When wild, it feeds entirely on vegetable diet, and makes a kind of house, or nest, in trees, interweaving the branches, so as to obtain shelter. They do not stand confinement well, being languid and miserable--but, in their native wildness, they can, if necessity arises, fight well in their own defence. A. R. Wallace, in his “Malay Archipelago; the Land of the Orang Utan and the Bird of Paradise,” tells the following story of its combativeness.

“A few miles down the river there is a Dyak house, and the inhabitants saw a large orang feeding on the young shoots of a palm by the river side. On being alarmed, he retreated towards the jungle, which was close by, and a number of the men, armed with spears and choppers, ran out to intercept him. The man who was in front, tried to run his spear through the animal’s body, but the orang seized it in his hands, and in an instant got hold of the man’s arm, which he seized in his mouth, making his teeth meet in the flesh above the elbow, which he tore and lacerated in a dreadful manner. Had not the others been close behind, the man would have been seriously injured, if not killed, as he was quite powerless; but they soon destroyed the creature with their spears and choppers. The man remained ill for a long time, and never fully recovered the use of his arm.”

It is called the Simia Satyrus; probably on its presumed lustfulness, certainly not on account of its resemblance to the satyr of antiquity.

Gesner gives us his idea of the orang, presenting us with the accompanying figure of the Cercopithecus, and quotes Cardanus as saying that the Cercopithecus or Wild-man, is singularly made, having the height and form of a man, with legs like man’s--and is covered all over with hair. No animal can withstand it, with the exception of man, to whom, when in its own regions, it is not inferior. It loves boys and women.

Pliny speaks of the Satyr Ape thus: “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. They 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 when they are aged, or sickly,” and, in another place, he says, “The Sphyngium and the Satyr stow away food in the pouches of their cheeks, after which they will take out piece by piece in their hands, and eat it.”

Topsell has mixed up the Simia Satyrus with the classical satyr, having legs and horns like goats; but he evidently alludes to the former in this passage. “The _Satyres_ are in the Islands _Satiridæ_, which are three in number, right over against India on the farther side of the _Ganges_; of which _Euphemus Car_ rehearseth this history: that when he sailed unto _Italy_, by the rage of winde and evill weather, they were driven to a coast unnavigable, where were many desart Islandes, inhabited of wild men, and the marriners refused to land upon some Islands, having heretofore had triall of the inhumaine and uncivill behaviour of the inhabitants, so that they brought us to the _Satyrian Islands_, where we saw the inhabitants red, and had tayles joyned to their backs, not much lesse than horsses. These, being perceived by the marriners to run to the shippes, and lay hold on the women that were in them, the shipmen, for feare, took one of the Barbarian women, and set her on the land among them, whom in most odious and filthy manner, they abused, whereby they found them to be very bruit beasts.”

He gives us his idea of the Simia Satyrus, which must have been an accomplished animal, for not only could it, apparently, play upon the pipe, but it had a handy pouch for the reception of the fruit (in lieu of coppers) which it doubtless would receive as guerdon for its performance.

SATYRS.

He also mentions and delineates a curious Ape which closely resembles the classical Satyr: “Under the _Equinoctiall_, toward the East and South, there is a kind of Ape called _Ægopithecus_, an Ape like a Goate. For there are Apes like Beares, called _Arctopitheci_, and some like Lyons, called _Leontopitheci_, and some like Dogs, called _Cynocephali_, as is before expressed; and many other which have a mixt resemblance of other creatures in their members.

“Amongst the rest there is a beast called PAN; who in his head, face, horns, legs, and from the loynes downward resembleth a Goat, but in his belly, breast, and armes, an Ape: such a one was sent by the King of _Indians_ to Constantine, which, being shut up in a cave or close place, by reason of the wildnesse thereof, lived there but a season, and when it was dead and bowelled, they pouldred it with spices, and carried it to be seene at Constantinople: the which beast having beene seene of the ancient Græcians, were so amazed at the strangenesse thereof, that they received it for a God, as they did a Satyre, and other strange beasts.”

I have said that Topsell has mixed the Ape and the Satyr, inextricably--but as his version has the charm of description and anecdote, I give it with little curtailment.

“As the _Cynocephali_, or _Baboun_ Apes have given occasion to some to imagine (though falsly) there were such men, so the _Satyre_, a most rare and seldom seene beast, hath occasioned other to thinke it was a Devil; and the Poets with their Apes, the Painters, Limners, and Carvers, to encrease that superstition, have therefore described him with hornes on his head, and feet like Goates, whereas Satires have neither of both. And it may be that Devils have at some time appeared to men in this likenes, as they have done in the likeness of the _Onocentaure_ and wild Asse, and other shapes; it being also probable that Devils take not any dænomination or shape from Satyres, but rather the Apes themselves, from Devils whom they resemble, for there are many things common to the Satyre Apes, and devilish Satyres, as their human shape, their abode in solitary places, their rough hayre, and lust to women, wherewith all other Apes are naturally infected; but especially Satyres....

“Peradventure the name of Satyre is more fitly derived from the Hebrew, _Sair, Esa._ 34, whereof the plural is _Seirim, Esa._ 13, which is interpreted monsters of the Desart, or rough hairy Fawnes; and when Iisim is put to _Seir_, it signifieth Goats.

“The _Chaldæans_, for _Seirim_, render _Schedin_; that is, evill devills; and the _Arabians_, _lesejathin_, that is _Satanas_: the _Persyans_, _Devan_, the _Illyrians_, _Devadai_, and _Dewas_: the _Germans_, _Teufel_. They which passed through the world, and exercised dauncing and other sports for _Dionisius_, were called Satyres, and sometimes _Tytiri_, because of their wanton songes; sometimes _Sileni_ (although the difference is, that the smaller and younger beasts are called _Satiri_, the elder, and greater, _Sileni_;) Also _Bacchæ_ and _Nymphæ_, wherefore _Bacchus_ is pictured riding in a chariot of vine branches, _Silenus_ ridinge beside him on an Asse, and the _Bacchæ_ or _Satyres_ shaking togetheer their staulkie Javelines and Paulmers.[27] By reason of their leaping they are called _Scirti_, and the anticke or satyrical dauncing, _Sicinnis_, and they also sometimes _Sicinnistæ_; sometimes _Ægipanæ_; wherefore _Pliny_ reporteth, that among the westerne _Ethiopians_, there are certain little hilles full of the _Satirique Ægipanæ_, and that, in the night-time they use great fires, piping and dansing, with a wonderful noise of Tymbrels and Cymbals; and so also in _Atlas_ amongest the Moores, whereof there was no footing, remnant, or appearance, to be found in the daytime.

“... There are also _Satires_ in the Eastern mountaines of _India_, in the country of the _Cartaduli_, and in the province of the _Comari_ and _Corudæ_, but the _Cebi_ spoken of before, bred in _Ethiopia_, are not _Satyres_ (though faced like them:) nor the _Prasyan_ Apes, which resemble _Satyres_ in short beards. There are many kindes of these _Satyres_ better distinguished by names than any properties naturall known unto us. Such are the _Ægipanæ_, before declared, _Nymphes_ of the Poets, _Fawnes_, _Pan_ and _Sileni_, which, in time of the Gentiles were worshipped for Gods; and it was one part of their religion to set up the picture of a Satyre at their dores and gates, for a remedy against the bewitching of envious persons.

“... Satyres have no humaine conditions in them, nor any other resemblance of men besides their outward shape; though _Solinus_ speakes of them like as of men. They carry their meate under their chin as in a store house, and from thence being hungry, they take it forth to eat, making it ordinary with them every day, which is but annuall in the _Formicæ_ lions; being of very unquiet motions above other Apes. They are hardly taken, except sicke, great with yong, old or asleepe; for _Sylla_ had a _Satyre_ brought him, which was taken asleepe neare _Apollonia_, in the holy place _Nymphæum_, of whom he (by divers interpreters) demanded many questions, but received no answer, save only a voice very much like the neighing of a horse, wherof he being afraid, sent him away alive.

“_Philostratus_ telleth another history, how that _Apollonius_ and his colleagues, supping in a village of _Ethiopia_, beyond the fall of _Nilus_, they heard a sudden outcry of women calling to one another; some saying, _Take him_, others, _Follow him_; likewise provoking their husbands to helpe them: the men presently tooke clubs, stones, or what came first to hand, complaining of an injury done unto their wives. Now some ten moneths before, there had appeared a fearfull shew of a Satyre, raging upon their women, and had slain two of them, with whom he was in love: the companions of _Apollonius_ quaked at the hearing hereof, and _Nilus_, one of them, swore (by _Jove_) that they being naked and unarmed, could not be able to resist him in his outragious lust, but that he would accomplish his wantonnes as before: yet, said _Apollonius_, there is a remedy to quaile these wanton-leaping beasts, which men say _Midas_ used (for _Midas_ was of kindred to _Satyres_, as appeared by his eares). This _Midas_ heard his mother say, that _Satyres_ loved to be drunke with wine, and then sleep soundly, and after that, be so moderate, mild and gentle, that a man might thinke they had lost their first nature.

“Whereupon he put wine into a fountain neere the highway, whereof, when the _Satyre_ had tasted, he waxed meeke suddenly, and was overcome. Now that we thinke not this a fable (saith _Apollonius_) let us go to the Governor of the Towne, and inquire of him whether there be any wine to be had that we may offer it to the _Satyre_, wherunto all consented, and they filled foure great _Egyptian_ earthen vessels with wine, and put it in the fountain where their cattel were watred: this done, _Apollonius_ called the _Satyre_, secretly thretning him, and the _Satire_, inraged with the savour of the wine came; after he had drunke thereof, Now, said _Apollonius_, let us sacrifice to the _Satyre_, for he sleepeth, and so led the inhabitants to the dens of the _Nymphs_, distant a furlong from the towne, and shewed them the _Satyre_ saying; Neither beat, cursse, or provoke him henceforth, and he shall never harme you.

“It is certaine, that the devills do many waies delude men in the likeness of _Satyres_; for, when the drunken feasts of _Bacchus_ were yearely celebrated in _Parnassus_, there were many sightes of _Satyres_, and voyces, and sounding of cymbals heard: yet it is likely that there are men also like Satyres, inhabiting in some desart places; for _S. Ierom_, in the life of _Paul the Eremite_, reporteth that there appeared to _S. Anthony_, an _Hippocentaure_ such as the Poets describe, and presently he saw, in a rocky valley adjoining, a little man having croked nostrils, hornes growing out of his forhed, and the neather part of his body had Goat’s feet; the holy man, not dismayed, taking the shield of faith, and the breastplate of righteousnesse, like a good souldior of Christ, pressed toward him, which brought him some fruites of palmes as pledges of his peace, upon which he fed in the journey; which Saint _Anthony_ perceiving, he asked him who he was, and received this answere; I am a mortall creature, one of the inhabitants of this Desart, whom the Gentiles (deceived with error) doe worship, and call _Fauni_, _Satyres_, and _Incubi_: I am come in ambassage from our flocke, intreating that thou would’st pray for us unto the common GOD, who came to save the world; the which words were no sooner ended, but he ran away as fast as any foule could fly. And least this should seeme false, under _Constantine_ at _Alexandria_ there was such a man to be seene alive, and was a publick spectacle to all the World; the carcasse thereof, after his death, was kept from corruption by heat, through salt, and was carried to _Antiocha_ that the Emperor himself might see it.

“_Satyres_ are very sildom seene, and taken with great difficulty, as is before saide: for there were two of these founde in the woods of _Saxony_ towards _Dacia_, in a desart, the female was killed by the darts of the hunters, and the biting of Dogs, but the male was taken alive, being in the upper parts like a man, and in the neather partes like a Goat, but all hairy throughout: he was brought to be tame, and learned to go upright, and also to speake some wordes, but with a voice like a Goat, and without all reason.

“The famous learned man _George Fabricius_, shewed me this shape of a monstrous beast that is fit to be joyned to the story of _Satyres_. There was, (saide he,) in the territory of the Bishop of _Salceburgh_, in a forrest called _Fannesbergh_, a certaine foure-footed beast, of a yellowish carnation colour, but so wilde that he would never be drawne to looke upon any man, hiding himselfe in the darkest places, and beeing watched diligently, would not be provoked to come forth so much as to eate his meate--so that in a very short time it was famished. The hinder legs were much unlike the former, and also much longer. It was taken about the year of the Lord, one thousand five hundred, thirty, whose image being here so lively described, may save us further labour in discoursing of his maine and different parts and proportion.”

THE SPHYNX.

“The SPHYNGA or _Sphinx_, is of the kind of Apes, but his breast up to his necke, pilde and smooth without hayre: the face is very round, yet sharp and piked, having the breasts of women, and their favor, or visage, much like them: In that part of the body which is bare with out haire, there is a certaine red thing rising in a round circle, like millet seed, which giveth great grace & comeliness to their coulour, which in the middle part is humaine: Their voice is very like a man’s, but not articulate, sounding as if one did speake hastily, with indignation or sorrow. Their haire browne, or swarthy coulour. They are bred in _India_, and _Ethiopia_. In the promontory of the farthest _Arabia_ neere _Dira_, are _Sphinges_, and certaine _Lyons_, called _Formicæ_, so, likewise, they are to be found amongest the _Trogloditæ_.

“As the _Babouns_ and _Cynocephali_ are more wilde than other Apes, so the _Satyres_ and _Sphynges_ are more meeke and gentle, for they are not so wilde that they will not bee tamed, nor yet so tame, but they will revenge their own harmes; as appeared by that which was slayne in a publike spectacle among the _Thebanes_. They carrye their meat in the store houses of their own chaps or cheeks, taking it forth when they are hungry, and so eat it.

“The name of this _Sphynx_ is taken from ‘binding,’ as appeareth by the Greek notation, or else of delicacie and dainty nice loosnesse, (wherefore there were certain common strumpets called _Sphinctæ_, and the _Megarian Sphingas_ was a very popular phrase for notorious harlots), hath given occasion to the poets to faigne a certaine monster called _Sphynx_, which they say was thus derived. _Hydra_ brought foorth the _Chimæra_, _Chimæra_ by _Orthus_, the _Sphynx_, and the _Nemæan_ Lyon: now, this _Orthus_ was one of _Geryon’s_ dogges. This _Sphynx_ they make a treble formed monster, a Mayden’s face, a Lyon’s legs, and the wings of a fowle; or, as _Ansonius_ and _Varinus_ say, the face and head of a mayde, the body of a dogge, the winges of a byrd, the voice of a man, the clawes of a Lyon, and the tayle of a dragon: and that she kept continually in the _Sphincian_ mountaine; propounding to all travailers that came that way an _Ænigma_, or Riddle, which was this: _What was the creature that first of all goeth on foure legges; afterwards on two, and, lastly, on three_: and all of them that could not dissolve that Riddle, she presently slew, by taking them, and throwing them downe headlong, from the top of a Rocke. At last _Œdipus_ came that way, and declared the secret, that it _was a man, who in his infancy creepeth on all foure_, afterward, _in youth, goeth upon two legs_, and last of all, _in olde age taketh unto him a staffe which maketh him to goe, as it were, on three legs_; which the monster hearing, she presently threwe down herselfe from the former rocke, and so she ended. Whereupon Œdipus is taken for a subtill and wise opener of mysteries.

“But the truth is, that when _Cadmus_ had married an _Amazonian_ woman, called _Sphynx_, and, with her, came to _Thebes_, and there slew _Draco_ their king, and possessed his kingdom, afterwards there was a sister unto _Draco_ called _Harmona_, whom _Cadmus_ married, _Sphynx_ being yet alive. She, in revenge, (being assisted by many followers,) departed with great store of wealth into the mountaine _Sphincius_, taking with her a great Dogge, which _Cadmus_ held in great account, and there made daily incursions or spoiles upon his people. Now, _ænigma_, in the _Theban_ language, signifieth an inrode, or warlike incursion, wherfore the people complained in this sort. _This GRECIAN SPHINX robbeth us, in setting up with an ÆNIGMA, but no man knoweth after what manner she maketh this ÆNIGMA._

“_Cadmus_ hereupon made proclamation, that he would give a very bountifull reward unto him that would kill _Sphinx_, upon which occasion the Corinthian _Œdipus_ came unto her, being mounted on a swift courser, and accompanied with some _Thebans_ in the night season, slue her. Other say that _Œdipus_ by counterfaiting friendshippe, slue her, making shew to be of her faction; and _Pausanius_ saith, that the former Riddle, was not a Riddle, but an Oracle of _Apollo_, which _Cadmus_ had received, whereby his posterity should be inheritors of the _Theban_ kingdome; and whereas _Œdipus_, being the son of _Laius_, a former king of that countrey, was taught the Oracle in his sleepe, he recouvered the kingdome usurped by _Sphinx_ his sister, and, afterwards, unknown, married his mother Jocasta.

“But the true morall of this poetical fiction is by that learned _Alciatus_, in one of his emblems, deciphered; that her monstrous treble formed shape signified her lustfull pleasure under a Virgin’s face, her cruell pride, under the Lyon’s clawes, her winde-driven leuitye, under the Eagles, or birdes feathers, and I will conclude with the wordes of _Suidas_ concerning such monsters, that the _Tritons_, _Sphinges_, and _Centaures_, are the images of those things, which are not to be founde within the compasse of the whole world.”

APES.

Sluper, who could soar to the height of delineating a Cyclops, is equal to the occasion when he has to deal with Apes, and here he gives us an Ape which, unfortunately, does not seem to have survived to modern times--namely, one which wove for itself coarse cloth, probably of rushes; had a cloak of skin, and walked upright, with the aid of a walking-stick, and was so genteel, that, having no boots, he seems to have blacked his feet. And thus he sings of it:

“Pres le Peru par effect le voit on,
Dieu a donné au Singe telle forme.
Vestu dejonc, s’appuyant d’un baston,
Estãt debout, chose aux hõmes cõforme.”

Before quitting the subject of Apes, I cannot refrain from noticing another of this genus mentioned by Topsell, and that is the Arctopithecus or Bear Ape:--“There is in America a very deformed beast, which the inhabitants call _Haut_ or _Hauti_, and the Frenchmen _Guenon_, as big as a great Affrican Monkey. His belly hangeth very low, his head and face like unto a childes, and being taken, it will sigh like a young childe. His skin is of an ashe-colour, and hairie like a Beare: he hath but three clawes on a foote, as longe as foure fingers, and like the thornes of Privet, whereby he climbeth up into the highest trees, and for the most part liveth of the leaves of a certain tree, beeing of an exceeding heighth, which the _Americans_ call _Amahut_, and thereof this beast is called _Haut_. Their tayle is about three fingers long, having very little haire thereon; it hath beene often tried, that though it suffer any famine, it will not eate the fleshe of a living man, and one of them was given me by a French-man, which I kept alive sixe and twenty daies, and at the last it was killed by Dogges, and in that time when I had set it abroad in the open ayre, I observed that, _although it often rained, yet was that beast never wet_.[28] When it is tame, it is very loving to a man, and desirous to climbe uppe to his shoulders, which those naked _Amerycans_ cannot endure, by reason of the sharpnesse of his Clawes.”

ANIMAL LORE.

We are indebted to Pliny for much strange animal lore--which, however, will scarcely bear the fierce light of modern investigation. Thus, he tells us of places in which certain animals are not to be found, and narrates some very curious zoological anecdotes thereon. “It is a remarkable fact, that nature has not only assigned different countries to different animals, but that even in the same country it has denied certain species to certain localities. In Italy, the dormouse is found in one part only, the Messian forest. In Lycia, the gazelle never passes beyond the mountains which border upon Syria; nor does the wild ass in that vicinity pass over those which divide Cappadocia from Cilicia. On the banks of the Hellespont, the stags never pass into a strange territory, and, about Arginussa, they never go beyond Mount Elaphus; those upon the mountains, too, have cloven ears. In the island of Poroselene, the weasels will not so much as cross a certain road. In Bœotia, the moles, which were introduced at Lebadea, fly from the very soil of that country, while in the neighbourhood, at Orchomenus, the very same animals tear up all the fields. We have seen coverlets for beds made of the skin of these creatures, so that our sense of religion does not prevent us from employing these ominous animals for the purposes of luxury.