CURIOUS CREATURES. 5 



Ptolemy and Ctesias speak of them, and Pliny says 

 there were men in Ceylon who had long hairy tails, and 

 were of remarkable swiftness of foot. Marco Polo tells 

 us : " Now you must know that in this kingdom of 

 Lambri l there are men with tails ; these tails are of 

 a palm in length, and have no hair on them. These 

 people live in the mountains, and are a kind of wild 

 men. Their tails are about the thickness of a dog's." 

 Many modern travellers have heard of hairy and tailed 

 people in the Malay Archipelago, and Mr. St. John, 

 writing of Borneo, says that he met with a trader who 

 had seen and felt the tails of a race which inhabited the 

 north-east coast of the island. These tails were about 

 four inches long, and so stiff that they had to use per- 

 forated seats. The Chinese also declare that in the 

 mountains above Canton there is a race of tailed men. 

 M. de Couret wrote about the Niam Niams, tailed men, 

 who, he says, are living in Abyssinia or Nubia, having 

 tails at least two inches long. We all know the old 

 Lord Monboddo's theory that mankind had originally 

 tails nay, he went further, and said that some were 

 born with them now a fact which will be partially borne 

 out by any military medical inspecting officer, who in the 

 course of his practice has met with men whose " os 

 coccygis" has been prolonged, so as to form a pseudo 

 tail, which would unfit the man for the cavalry, although 

 he would still be efficient as an infantry soldier. 



Here is a very fine picture from a fresco at Pompeii 

 representing tailed men, or, maybe, aesthetic young 

 Fauns, treading out the vintage. 



But tailed men are as nothing, compared to the won- 

 derful beings that peopled the earth in bygone times. 



1 Supposed to be Sumatra. 



