HA RD WI CKE ' S S CIENCE- G SSIP. 



63 



her children. Each of these latter examples clearly 

 falls into our section of monsters developed by the 

 exaggeration of forms in themselves natural. The 

 mere alteration in scale gives us dwarfs, pigmies, 

 fairies and giants, or such an imagining as the kraken, 

 or the creature mentioned in the Arabian Nights, a 

 fish so immense that mariners take it for an island, 

 and land thereon, only finding out the error of their 

 view as the increasing heat of the fire they have 

 kindled produces the sudden submergence of what 

 they had deemed terra-firma. 



The wondrous creatures of Aldrovandus are divisible 

 into three classes : — creatures that are absolute im- 

 possibilities, such as (Fig. 35), " homo ore et collo 

 gruis," a man having the head and neck of a crane ; 

 secondly, various species of malformation and abnor- 

 mal growth, which do undoubtedlv occur from time 



knees, a man with the head of a wolf, the lady 

 (Fig. 34), who is distinctly of harpy type, a ram- 

 headed individual, and a boy with the head of an 

 elephant. 



This notion of the substitution of heads has a great 

 charm for Aldrovandus. He gives us elsewhere a 

 bird-headed dog, and horses, goats, pigs and lions, 

 all with human heads ; while the " Monstrum 

 triceps capite vulpis, draconis et aquilre " is, we 

 venture to think, a creature that neither Aldrovandus, 

 nor anyone else, ever did see or ever will see. 

 According to the picture it had a human body and 

 legs, differing, however, from those of ordinary 

 humanity in being clothed with large scales. One arm 

 was like that of a man, the other was the wing of an 

 eagle, and a horse's tail in rear was another distinctly 

 abnormal growth, while surmounting all were three 



F'g- 39- 



to time ; and thirdly, other forms suggested by this 

 second class, but altogether carried to impossible 

 excess. 



It is of course easy, having realised that a lizard 

 with a forked tail is somewhat of a curiosity, to make 

 a much greater wonder by representing a ten-tailed 

 lizard ; and while a boy born without arms is a painful 

 possibility, the wonder is undoubtedly greatly increased 

 by also cutting off his legs and replacing them with 

 the tail of a fish. 



The creature he calls hippopos, having the head, 

 arms, and body of a man, but terminating below in 

 the legs and hoofs of a horse, was, though here only 

 two-legged, probably suggested by the centaur myth. 

 Amongst the other impossibilities, which, it must be 

 borne in mind, the old writer brings forward in the 

 most perfect good faith, is a man of normal growth, 

 except that he has elephantine ears that reach to his 



heads, those of a wolf, a dragon, and an eagle. There 

 are many other such atrocities ; while they are curious 

 as showing the depth of credulity our forefathers 

 could reach, it will readily be seen that they are the 

 dullest things possible. Anyone with a slight know- 

 ledge of zoology could create them by the score, 

 placing, for instance, on the neck of a giraffe the 

 head of an elephant, giving it the body of an alii 

 gator, and finishing off all neatly with the tail of a 

 peacock. 



The multiplication or suppression, or distortion of 

 various parts is a very strong point with Aldrovandus. 

 He illustrates for our benefit four-legged ducks and 

 pigeons, and two-headed pigs, sheep, cows, and 

 fishes ; calves, dogs, hares, each walking erect on 

 their hind-legs and having no front ones, and pigs, 

 cats, dogs, chickens, double-bodied but single-headed. 

 He also tells us of headless men, and gives us a draw- 



