IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Cathay and the Way Thither : vol.2 |
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Citation Information
380 RECOLLECTIONS OF TRAVEL IN THE EAST,
Yet is there no such race of hairy folk in Tuscany : nor was her own mother even, nor her mother's other children so, but like the rest of us.1 Such too was that monster whom
we saw in Tuscany, in the district of Florence, in our own
01
time, and which a pretty woman gave birth to. It had two
heads perfectly formed, four arms, two busts, perfect as far as the navel, but there running into one. There was one
imperfect leg sticking out of the side, and only two legs M
below, yet it was baptized as two persons. It survived for a week. I saw also at Bologna, when I was lecturing there,
a ewe which bore a monstrous lamb of like character, with 0
two heads and seven feet. Yet we do not suppose that such
creatures exist as a species, but regard them as natural 1
monstrosities. So doth God choose to show forth his power among men, that we may render thanks to Him that He hath not created us with such deformities, and that we may fear Him !
But I, who have travelled in all the regions of the Indians,
and have always been most inquisitive, with a mind indeed
too often addicted more to curious inquiries than to virtuous t
acquirements, (for I wanted if possible to know everything)
—I have taken more pains, I conceive, than another who is
generally read or at least well known,2 in investigating the
marvels of the world ; I have travelled in all the chief countries of the earth, and in particular to places where merchants from all parts of the world do come together, such as the Island of Ormes, and yet I never could ascertain as a fact that such races of men really do exist, whilst the persons whom I met used to question me in turn where such were to be found. The truth is that no such people do exist
phenomenon, entrusted the child to her damsels and took her to Germany (Chron., bk. y, ch. 53).
1 See portrait of the " Hairy Woman" in the Mission to Ava in 1855. In that case the phenomenon had appeared in at least three generations.
2 " Qui plus dedi operam, ut Auto, giiam alios qui legator vel sciatur." Does this point at Odoric
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