THE SCYTHIAN LAMB 



tion. The spirit of their learning can be judged from the 

 wearisome disquisitions and lengthy volumes written about 

 the Barnacle Goose and Scythian Lamb. 



In certain deserts along the Volga River in Russia, a 

 peculiar fern may be found. It might be described as 

 resembling a gigantic Polypody ; the stem is about as thick 

 as a lamb''s body and grows horizontally on the ground like 

 that of the common fern mentioned; thick furry scales cover 

 the outside of its stem, which ends at the tip in an elongated 

 point. The blackish-green leaf-stalks springing from the 

 furry stem end in large divided green leaves. 



It occurred to some medieval humorist to cut off the 

 upper part of the leaf-stalks, and to make a sort of toy lamb 

 out of the four leaf-stalk stumps and part of the woolly or 

 furry stem. 



This was palmed off as a wonderful curiosity of nature, as 

 "a plant that became an animal,"" upon the ingenuous 

 tourist of the period. 



Such a subject was thoroughly congenial to the learned 

 mind in the Middle Ages, and an enormous quantity of 

 literature was produced in consequence. The general theory 

 is given in the following lines : — 



^' Cradled in snow and fanned by Arctic air, 

 Shines, gentle Barometz, thy golden hair. 

 Rooted in earth each cloven hoof descends. 

 And round and round her flexile neck she bends. 

 Crops the grey coralmoss and hoary thyme. 

 Or laps with rosy tongue the melting rime. 

 Eyes with mute tenderness her distant dam. 

 Or seems to bleat, a vegetable lamb." 



Such is the old idea of a well-known fern, Cibotium 

 harovietz. 



Yet the original researches of some African "Obi"" wizard 



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