In the year 1547, at Cracovia, a very strange monster was born,
which lived three days. It had a head shaped like that of a man;
a nose long and hooked like an elephant's trunk; the hands and
feet looking like the web-foot of a goose; and a tail with a hook
on it. It was supposed to be a male, and was looked upon as a
result of sodomy. Rueff says that the procreation of human beings
and beasts is brought about--
(1) By the natural appetite;
(2) By the provocation of nature by delight;
(3) By the attractive virtue of the matrix, which in beasts and
women is alike.
Plutarch, in his "Lesser Parallels," says that Aristonymus
Ephesius, son of Demonstratus, being tired of women, had carnal
knowledge with an ass, which in the process of time brought forth
a very beautiful child, who became the maid Onoscelin. He also
speaks of the origin of the maiden Hippona, or as he calls her,
Hippo, as being from the connection of a man with a mare.
Aristotle mentions this in his paradoxes, and we know that the
patron of horses was Hippona. In Helvetia was reported the
existence of a colt (whose mother had been covered by a bull)
that was half horse and half bull. One of the kings of France was
supposed to have been presented with a colt with the hinder part
of a hart, and which could outrun any horse in the kingdom.
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