The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1885-02-18
Twenty-One Persons with Tails.
London Standard. 3

The discovery Of the tailed man has been
so often announced that until he is actually
captured, photographed, ionized, and daily
reported on, we hall continue skeptical re.
gaIding the "Yell-autheuticated statement"
OF this interesting parsonage running wild
and presumably naked-in the woods of New
Britain. The fact that some extremely mac
cesslble spot has invariably been selected for
his abode Sas enabled successive ge neratiors
Of Icmsncers foreman uncontradicted until
they and heir story were forgotten. Since
the fsR.t' Lord Monboddo's time there have
been rlel > OF assertions which would have
beeb OF enough proof for theorist ready
10 each at sny straw, though scarcely
weighty enough for ethnologists. For ex-
ample, certain Colonel du Corrett reported
TO the French academy that when in Mecca
forty three years ago he ssw at the house of
who had q tail three inches long aud
as fexiable as mon keys.
Unfortunately Colonel du Corret
is not generally admitted to have ever been
in Mecca. though the account which he
gives has 10 an appreciable extent been re-
pested, ii not confirmed, by other tsllers of
won drous tales. John Struys, a Dutch tray
eler who visited Formosa in 1917, asserted
that be saw in the interior of that island
savage with tail more than foot long,
CcYeTed with red hair and very like that of
q COW" an appendage which, he adds, was
c, nrnon to all the inhabitants, and was the
feet Of the climate Horneman trans.
ferrtd the story to the MAN Mans, who
we're evidently the people to whom NJ. du
Correct referred. Again and sgsin have trav-
elers in Ethiopia alIud TO the belief in the
tailed men which ext Is among the Abys-
sinians. DR.. Wolff was quite convinced of
the truth Of the story of there being men
and women in Abyssiuis with tails like
dogs and horses'-sO ponderous that they
use them as weapons; and adds that such
people also live near China. DR.. Hubsch af-
firms that he saw. in 1852, in the CONSTANT
nople Hospital, to which be was physician,
a Nam Nam woman with tail two inches
long and wolfiish expression quite in keep
ing. DR.. Hubsch was nan of good status,
though at the time his reputation for strict
adherence to the truth was not unquestioned
By skeptics. In reality, it is now known
that such deviations from the normal state
of matters are by no means unique. Setting
aside the story of q child In Newcastle which
was born with a tail one and one-fourth
inches long, DIR. Max Bertels. distinguished
German authropologist, has, within the
last four years. investigated twenty
one we'll authenticated cases of per-
SONS having been born with tails There
is, therefore, no reason for scouting the idea
that men provided with the superhuity in
question may exist, since 1t is an essential
iDcipal Of modern biology that any pecu-
llaIty may become hereditary, and that
there is a tendency 10 perpetd6te these acct
dental sports for 1.-The good of the species.
In early life the os coccygis or termination
of the sacrum-which in the adult condition
is tucked iD-projects somewhat, and Pro
lessor Ernst Haeckl, who regards these bone:
as sn undeveloped tail, declares that there
exist rucimentary muscles, the remains oil
those which, according to this somewhat
wild eyolutionlst, served to move the tail ol
our ancient progenitoIs." Unfortunate ly
the subject has never yet been reasonably
treated from popular point OF view, tht
idea lending itself too much TO burlesque OF
| to rldicule for that calm discussion which sc
| grave q possibility demands. 1t is, indeed
so Mr.. Barring. Gould tells us-s widespread
superstition among Devonsbire children that
Cornish men are born with tails, and accord
ing to similar legend. referred to by An
drew Marvel in his Loyal Scot" certain
men of Kent were sffiicted in like fashion AZ
a mark of the divine displeasure at their
treatment of Thomas Becket's horse, at
Strood, near Rochester. But, after all, what
matters it2 A tail is by no means an unorna-
mental superhuity. tailless monkey is
infinitely less pleasant to the eye than or a
with tail, and among various savage tribs ;
this fact is recognized by the men attachin :
those of wild animals to their dress wht q
performing any particularly sacred dances.
| Indeed, the train of a fashionable lady, or a
great officer of State like the Lord Chance :
! Tor, snd OF debutante at Court may be r.
ferIed to a similar inarticulate longing after
what nature has omitted to supply.