John Ashton - Curious Creatures in Zoology

“To leave therefore these fables, and come to the true description of the Lamia , we have in hand. In the foure and thirty chapter of Esay, we do find this called a beast Lilith in the Hæbrew, and translated by the auncients Lamia , which is threatened to possesse Babell . Likewise in the fourth chapter of the Lamentations, where it is said in our English translation, that the Dragons lay forth their brests, in Hæbrew they are called Ehannum , which, by the confession of the best interpreters, cannot signifie Dragons, but rather Sea calves, being a generall word for strange wilde beasts. How be it the matter being wel examined, it shall appeare that it must needes be this Lamia, because of her great breastes, which are not competible either to the Dragon, or Sea calves; so then, we wil take it for graunted, by the testimony of holy Scripture, that there is such a beast as this Cristostinius . Dion also writeth that there are such beasts in some parts of Libia , having a Woman’s face, and very beautifull, also very large and comely shapes on their breasts, such as cannot be counterfeited by the art of any painter, having a very excellent colour in their fore parts, without wings, and no other voice but hissing like Dragons: they are the swiftest of foote of all earthly beasts, so as none can escape them by running, for, by their celerity, they compasse their prey of beastes, and by their fraud they overthrow men. For when they see a man, they lay open their breastes, and by the beauty thereof, entice them to come neare to conference, and so, having them within their compasse, they devoure and kill them.

“Unto the same things subscribe Cælius and Giraldus , adding also, that there is a certaine crooked place in Libia neare the Sea-shore, full of sand like to a sandy Sea, and all the neighbor places thereunto are deserts. If it fortune at any time, that through shipwrack, men come there on shore, these beasts watch uppon them, devouring them all, which either endevour to travell on the land, or else to returne backe againe to Sea, adding also, that when they see a man they stand stone still, and stir not til he come unto them, looking down upon their breasts or to the ground, whereupon some have thought, that seeing them, at their first sight have such a desire to come neare them, that they are drawne into their compasse, by a certaine naturall magicall witchcraft… The hinderparts of the beast are like unto a Goate, his fore legs like a Beares, his upper parts to a woman, the body scaled all over like a Dragon, as some have affirmed by the observation of their bodies, when Probus , the Emperor, brought them forth unto publike spectacle; also it is reported of them, that they devoure their own young ones, and therefore they derive their name Lamia , of Lamiando; and thus much for this beast.”

This extraordinary combination of man and animal is very ancient – and the first I can find is Assyrian. Mr. W. St. Chad Boscawen, in one of his British Museum Lectures (afterwards published under the title of From under the Dust of Ages ), speaking of the seasons and the zodiacal signs, in his lecture on The Legend of Gizdhubar

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Supposed to be Sumatra.

γης κλειθρον, meaning the limit or boundary of the earth.

The Gryphon must not be confounded with the Griffin, as will be seen later on.

The Roman cubit was eighteen inches, so that these men were nearly eight feet high.

From ἀπὸ τοῦ μονοῦ κώλου, “from having but one leg.”

From Σκιαποῦς, “making a shadow with his foot.”

Sparrow footed, from στροῦθος, a sparrow.

Probably cotton.

Or long livers, from μακρὸς, “long,” and βίος, “life.”

A palm was three inches, so that these men would be eight feet high.

From Γυμνητὴς, one who takes much bodily exercise.

Mirage.

Other editions read rough hair .

In Greek, Τοπάζω, means to guess, divine, or conjecture.

Burn.

Breast.

At war.

From τρεις, three , σπιθαμὰι, spans .

Other editions say six or seven years.

See his letters dated September 1888, which arrived in England early in April 1889.

Ox horns, horn cups.

A lake between Macedonia and Thrace.

The fishermen of lake Prasias still have lake dwellings as in the time of Herodotus.

The most abundant were the oyster, mussel, cockle, and periwinkle.

Transactions of the Ethnological Society, 1866, vol. iv., p. 34.

Thyrsi.

The italics are mine. – J. A.