CURIOUS CREATURES. 47 



most of their personal charms. Caesar (Book v. 14) 

 writes : " Of all these tribes, by far the most civilised are 

 those who inhabit Kent, which district is altogether 

 maritime; nor do they differ much from the Gallic 

 customs. Most of those in the interior do not sow 

 corn, but live on flesh and milk, and are clad in skins. 

 All the Britons, in truth, dye themselves with woad, 

 which produces a bluish colour, and on this account they 

 are of a more frightful aspect in battle. They have 

 flowing hair, and every part of the body shaved, except 

 the head and the upper lip. Ten, and even twelve of 

 them have wives in common between them, and chiefly 

 brothers with brothers, and fathers with sons ; but, if 

 there is any offspring, they are considered to be the 

 children of those by whom each virgin was first 

 espoused." 



HAIRY MEN. 



If, as we may conjecture from the above, the ancient 

 Briton was " a rugged man, o'ergrown with hair," his 

 full-dress toilette must have occupied some time. But 

 extreme hairiness in human beings is by no means 

 singular, and very many cases are recorded in medical 

 books. Many of us may remember the Spanish dancer, 

 Julia Pastrana, whose whole body was hairy, and who 

 had a fine beard. She had a child on whom the hair 

 began to grow, like its mother ; and, but a few years 

 back, there was a hairy family exhibited in London 

 their faces being covered with hair, as is the case of the 

 Puella pilosa, or Hairy Girl given by Aldrovandus in 

 his Monstrorum Historia. 



She was aged twelve years, and came from the Canary 

 Isles, together with her father (aged 40), her brother (20), 



