Book VIII. Mland of BARBADOS. 226 
C A’ PT Dstt aetee Ricay. 
AN D 
PARASTTICAL PLANTS 
The AGNus ScyTHIcUus. 
W* are now come to treat of a Plant of the parafitical Clafs, tho’ 
dignified with the Name and Quality of an Animal, which (if 
we believe many Writers of Wonders) hath not only the Shape of a Lamb, 
and is woolly, but likewife feeds upon the adjacent Plants. To increafe 
the Wonder, it is faid, that, if thefe are removed, the Lamb foon after dies. 
This, and many other furprifing Qualities, are attributed to this fup- 
pofed Animal, which the Zartars ftrongly affirm to exift ; yet conceal 
the Place where it is found. _ However chimerical this may appear, and 
in reality is, yet the otherwife judicious Kempfer was {fo credulous, as to 
fpend a great Part of his Life in Search after it; tho’ a moderate Atten- 
tion to the Motives of his Credibility would have {pared him his laborious 
Search: For there is not a more fufpicious, or even a furer Sign of Craft, 
or Cunning, and of an intended Impofition upon the Credulity of Man- 
kind, than a fedulous Endeavour to keep any pretended Difcovery of this 
Kind from the Infpedtion of the Public. What byaffed human Nature 
to embrace low Art and Cunning, in Exchange for that true Wifdom, 
and beft of Policy, undifguifed Truth, was, and ftill continues to be, 
that groveling and fordid, yet almoft univerfal Paffion, the Love of Gain. 
In the following Inftance we fhall find, this Vice is not only the Attendant 
of luxurious fa, or the effeminate Part of Ewrope, but that it reigns even 
among the rude unpolifhed Zartars, whom Luxury, one would have 
imagined, had not made Slaves to its unneceffary Wants. However, we 
find that thefe, like the Ephefian Copperfmith, are artful enough to 
fecure their own Gain; for, as Furs are in great Efteem, and in high 
Value, among the Nobility of Zartary, and the neighbouring Turks, the 
near Refemblance of the Down growing upon this Plant, to the Wool of 
avery young Lamb, afforded the cunning Zartars room to impofe upon 
the World, and gave Rife to that barbarous Piece of Cruelty of privately 
_ Mipping up the Ewes, as foon as the Lambs had attained to the ote 
G.: Ooo Ox" 
