A FREAK OF NATURE. 



449 



introduce his frightful countenance into the court of heaven, and his 

 present tour may be regarded as a sort of preparation for death, as he 

 devotes all the money he makes, over and above his outlay for creature 

 comforts, to purchasing the prayers of a devout community of monks 

 in his native village, Kostroma, after his mortal career is ended. 



Andrian is of medium stature, but very strongly built. His exces- 

 sive capillary development is not true hair, being simply an abnormal 

 growth of the down or fine hairs which usually cover nearly the entire 

 surface of the human body. Strictly speaking, he has neither head- 

 hair, beard, mustache, eyebrows, nor eyelashes, their place being 

 taken by this singular growth of long, silky down. In color this is of 

 a dirty yellow ; it is about three inches in length, all over the face, 

 and feels like the hair of a Newfoundland dog. The very eyelids are 

 covered with this long hair, while flowing locks come out of his nos- 

 trils and ears. On his body are isolated patches, strewed, but not 

 thickly, with hairs one and a half to two inches long. Dr. Bertillon, 

 of Paris, compared a hair from Andrian's chin with a very fine hair 

 from a man's beard, and found that the latter was three times as thick 

 as the former; and a hair from Andrian's head is only one-half as thick 

 as an average human hair. 



Fig. 2. 



Fedob Jeftichjew. 



When these strange beings were exhibited in Berlin, Prof. Virchow 

 was much interested in them, and gathered all accessible information 

 about their life and ancestry. He states that Andrian is, so far as 

 known, the first of his line to present this wonderful hirsuteness. 

 Neither his reputed father nor his mother presented any peculiarity of 



vol. iv.— 29 



