Note, on Tunis Sheep. 231 
of man” has been, most flagitiously, employed, not in their 
formation, but in their destruction. In the quarter of the 
globe inhabited by this variety of men, varieties of animals 
are so numerous, that some not seen beiore are said, by a 
traveller, frequently to present themselves. Some men, and 
some sheep, have woo/; while others, both men and sheep, 
have hair. There the colour of the human skin has every 
tint, from white to black. The ears of some quadrupeds 
are almost perpendicularly erect; while others are invete- 
rately pendant ; being from one to two feet long. Such is the 
Mambrina, or Syrian goat. While the Ourang Outang, the 
head of the family of Simi@, is entirely without a tail; the 
Papiones have short stumps. One more inclined than I am 
to indulge conjecture, might, with no small degree of plausi- 
bility, suppose, that this precedent set by nature afforded the 
hint to those who introduced the practice of docking the tails 
of sheep. One of the Cercopithéci, or tail-bearers, (a nume- 
rous branch) called J/idas from the “ monstrosity” ot his 
ears, has a tail said to be three, and often four times, as 
long as his body. No person would believe (although 
all of this genus are pre-eminent among mimicks.—Jm2- 
tatores—servum pecus—) that the first followed the ex- 
ample of Lord Jfonboddo’s man ; and, by some artiul 
contrivance, cast a tail he once possessed ; or that the lat- 
ter had the faculty, by some kind of instinctive ductility, 
of running altogether into d/ength, instead of protuberance ef 
tail. And yet I cannot perceive why art, turning to its 
advantage the playfulness of nature, may not root out and 
abolish, or incontinently extend, as well as protuberate and 
store with materials for “ plenty of grease for the toilet and 
the kitchen,” the tails of whole races of animals and their de- 
scendants. Provided always that the fact, of its having been 
done in either case, can be established. It would be in the 
Simic tribe only, that one would look for and expect, “ mon- 
Strosities, sports and whims, excrescences and dejormities.” 
