. The story of Marco Polo . ng andstrong prickles, and when savage with any one they crushhim under their knees and then rasp him with their head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry itever bent toward the ground. They delight much to abidein mire and mud. Tis a passing ugly beast to look are also monkeys here in great numbers and ofsundry kinds, and goshawks as black as crows. These arevery large birds and capital for fowling. I may tell you, moreover, that when people bring homepygmies which they allege to come from India, tis all a lieand a cheat. For those li
. The story of Marco Polo . ng andstrong prickles, and when savage with any one they crushhim under their knees and then rasp him with their head resembles that of a wild boar, and they carry itever bent toward the ground. They delight much to abidein mire and mud. Tis a passing ugly beast to look are also monkeys here in great numbers and ofsundry kinds, and goshawks as black as crows. These arevery large birds and capital for fowling. I may tell you, moreover, that when people bring homepygmies which they allege to come from India, tis all a lieand a cheat. For those little men, as they call them, aremanufactured on this Island, and I will tell you how. Yousee there is on the Island a kind of monkey which is verysmall, and has a face just like a mans. They take these,and pluck out all the hair except the hair of the beard andon the breast, and then they dry them and stuff them anddaub them with saffron and other things until they looklike men. But you see it is all a cheat; for nowhere in. .s%. %K-. THE THREE ASIATIC RHINOCEROSES: INDIAN (UPPER), SUMATRAN(LOWER), JAVANESE (MIDDLE). XX.] A WICKED CUSTOM. 221 India nor anywhere else in the world were there ever menseen so small as these pretended pygmies. Marco confounds the rhinoceros with the fabulousunicorn, as many other writers of the olden time havedone. The unicorn, which is represented as fightingfor the crown with the lion, was something likethe horse, with a single horn in his forehead. Therewas no such creature ; but the rhinoceros, then verylittle known, was mistaken for the unicorn. TheSumatra rhinoceros, however, usually has two horns ;it is the Indian beast of this family that has but onehorn. If Marco Polo had with his own eyes seenthe so-called unicorn of Sumatra, he doubtless wouldhave been very much puzzled. Marco then makes us shudder by relating ahorrible practice, in which the people of Dagroianindulged (their island was close to Sumatra): I will tell you a wicked custom o
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectvoyagesandtravels
