FABULOUS VARIETIES. 367 



of sheep very well, calls it ovis steatopyga, or fat-buttocked 

 sheep. 



The peculiarity is lost by crossing the breed with other 

 sheep ; and it becomes considerably diminished, when the 

 animals, being purchased by the Russians and conveyed to 

 their towns, quit their native pastures, and change their 

 mode of life 



As this fat-buttocked sheep is universally held to be a 

 mere variety, we cannot deem the analogous structure of 

 the Bosjesmen and Hottentots to aiford any adequate ground 

 for referring those tribes of human beings to a distinct spe- 

 cies. The developement of the nymphse, and the other va- 

 rieties enumerated in this chapter, are merely analogous 

 to the variations observed in corresponding points among 

 our domestic animals. 



The works of the older cosmographers, and even the nar- 

 ratives of comparatively recent travellers, make mention of 

 human varieties much more remarkable than any which I 

 have recounted. Such are the African Blemmycs, or people 

 without heads ; the Arimaspi and Cyclops, with one eye ; 

 the Monosceli, with one leg; the giants and pigmies, the 

 Monorchides, the Anorchides, Triorchides, Hermaphro- 

 dites *, the Cynocephali, Cynomolgi, &c. &c. which are 

 spoken of by Herodotus, Pliny, Pomponius Mela, 

 Ptolemy, and many others. The proverbial licence as- 

 sumed by travellers, their ignorance or disposition to deceive, 

 their carelessness in receiving or communicating facts, and 

 the credulity and love of the marvellous in their readers, are 

 all favourable to the production and diffusion of such stories. 

 In proportion as distant regions become well known, such 

 monstrosities disappear; and the progress of natural know- 

 ledge will gradually consign all these marvellous tales to ob- 

 livion. The great mass of information, which we now pos- 

 sess, concerning the animal creation in general, respecting 



Africa, in which the tail is not deficient as in the ovis steatopyga, but retains 

 Hs usual length, and becomes loaded with fat. 



* I have considered this subject in the article ' Generation' of Dr. 

 Rees's Cyclopcedia, 



