exists. It
has been noticed in the class of dogs whose tails are habitually
amputated to improve their appearance that the tail gradually decreases
in length. Some breeders deny this fact.

Human Tails.--The prolongation of the coccyx sometimes takes the shape
of a caudal extremity in man. Broca and others claim that the sacrum
and the coccyx represent the normal tail of man, but examples are not
infrequent in which there has been a fleshy or bony tail appended to
the coccygeal region. Traditions of tailed men are old and widespread,
and tailed races were supposed to reside in almost every country. There
was at one time an ancient belief that all Cornishmen had tails, and
certain men of Kent were said to have been afflicted with tails in
retribution for their insults to Thomas a Becket. Struys, a Dutch
traveler in Formosa in the seventeenth century, describes a wild man
caught and tied for execution who had a tail more than a foot long,
which was covered with red hair like that of a cow.

The Niam Niams of Central Africa are reported to have tails smooth and
hairy and from two to ten inches long. Hubsch of Constantinople remarks
that both men and women of this tribe have tails. Carpus, or
Berengarius Carpensis, as he is called, in one of his Commentaries said
that there were some people in Hibernia with long tails, but whether
they were fleshy or cartilaginous could not be known, as the people
could not be approached. Certain supposed tailed races which have been
described by sea-captains and voyagers are really only examples of
people who wear artificial appendages about the waists, such as
palm-leaves and hair. A certain Wesleyan missionary, George Brown, in
1876 spoke of a formal breeding of a tailed race in Kali, off the coast
of New Britain. Tailless children were slain at once, as they would be
exposed to public ridicule. The tailed men of Borneo are people
afflicted with hereditary malformation analogous to sexdigitism. A
tailed race of princes have ruled Rajoopootana, and are fond of their
ancestral mark. There are fabulous stories told of canoes in the East
Indies which have holes in their benches made for the tails of the
rowers. At one time in the East the presence of tails was taken as a
sign of brute force.

There was reported from Caracas the discovery of a tribe of Indians in
Paraguay who were provided with tails. The narrative reads somewhat
after this manner: One day a number of workmen belonging to