Note, on Tunis Sheep* 2^31 



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 before are said, by a 

 traveller, frequently to present themselves. Some men, and 

 some sheep, have zuool ; while others, both men and sheep, 

 have hair* There the colour of the human skin has every 

 tint, -rom 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 Simice^ 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 Cercopithcci^ or tail-bearers, (a nume- 

 rous branch) called Midas from the " monstrosity" of 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. — Imi- 

 tator es — servum pecus — J that the first followed the ex- 

 ample of Lord Monhoddo* s man ; and, by some artful 

 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 length, instead oi protuberance of 

 tail. And yet I cannot perceive why art, turnmg to its 

 advantage the playfulness of nature, may not root out and 

 abolish, oy 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 

 Simice tribe only, that one would look for and expect, " mon- 

 strosities, sports and whims, excrescences and deformities." 



