THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL. 79 



the men of the Niam-niams had tails 

 covered with hair, the ladies were very 

 beautiful and tailless" 



Mr. Francis Gosse, a F.R.S., and there- 

 fore worthy of the most implicit credit, as 

 a Fellow of the most scientific Society in 

 England before Darwin was born, notwith- 

 standing De Quincey's epigram,* relates 

 the following story in support of the 

 testimony of the skeleton in the Dublin 

 College of Surgeons, that the ancient Irish 

 were blessed with tails, says " there are in 

 Ireland a few remaining descendants of 

 the people with tails. To an old woman, 

 John Cockle, Esq., offered a handsome sum 

 of money for ocular proof of this pheno- 

 menon, and on her- refusal attempted to 

 satisfy his curiosity by force; a scuffle 

 ensued, the old woman cried out, which 

 brought her grandsons to her assistance, 

 who beat him most cruelly, and laid an 

 indictment against him for an assault 

 on their grandmother, and it was not 



*' Seep. 41. 



