The Lamb Lies Down

The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary

n One of the strangest, and most persistent, of the myths ofnthe Middle Ages is that of the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary – also known as thenScythian Lamb, and the Barometz, Borametz or Borometz, (a Tartar word forn‘lamb’).

Vegetable Lamb from Mandeville Travels

nThe legend first appears in the Travels of Sir John Mandeville,na book of travellers’ tales of dubious veracity compiled from 1357 to 1371. Innchapter XXVI, titled ‘Of the Countries and Isles that he beyond the Land ofnCathay; and of the fruits there; and of twenty-two kings enclosed within thenmountains’, there is the following description,

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n“And there groweth anmanner of fruit, as though it were gourds. And when they be ripe, men cut themna-two, and men find within a little beast, in flesh, in bone, and blood, asnthough it were a little lamb without wool. And men eat both the fruit and thenbeast. And that is a great marvel. Of that fruit I have eaten, although it werenwonderful, but that I know well that God is marvellous in his works.”

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nOthernwriters cite ancient Talmudic traditions, which tell of the Jeduah,ndescribed by rabbinical scholars as a plant-animal like a lamb which isntethered to the ground by a sort of umbilical cord, and which can only eat whatnvegetation is within reach of the cord. It is hunted by firing a well-aimednarrow at the cord and when this is cut, the creature dies at once. Its bonesnare taken and used in magical ceremonies to foretell the future.

nIn anvariation, the Jedoui takes human form and is similarly grounded by itsnnavel – it is a savage beast which kills anyone it can reach and can only benkilled by severing the cord with an arrow or dart. Jedoui means ‘wizard’ and isnthe same wizard mentioned in Leviticus XIX 31, “Regard not them thatnhave familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I amnthe LORD your God”; the bones of the Jedoui were placed in the mouth andnimmediately one was endowed with the gift of prophecy.

nOdoricus of Friuli, anMinorite friar, writing in about 1330, tells of a province of the Great Can,

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n“…nin which is the mountain of Capsius (the province is called ‘Kalor’), therengrow gourds, which, when they are ripe, open, and within them is found a littlenbeast like unto a young lamb, even as I myself have heard reported that therenstand certain trees upon the shore of the Irish Sea bearing fruits like unto angourd, which at a certain time of the year do fall into the water and becomenbirds called Bernacles ; and this is true.”

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Frontispiece of John Parkinson – Paradisi in Sole 1629

Details from the same showing a Vegetable Lamb

nLater explorers went innsearch of the Vegetable Lamb, and they too describe how it is tethered to the earthnby a stem, eats only what it can reach, bears a silky white fleece which thennatives of Tartary used to make soft linings for their hats, and which onlynwolves and men eat, the flesh tasting sweet, like crayfish, and the bloodntasting of honey. In 1698, Sir Hans Sloane presented a specimen to the RoyalnSociety of London, which is described in the Transactions as

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n“…whatnis commonly, but falsely, in India, called ‘the Tartarian Lamb’ sent down fromnthence by Mr. Buckley. This was more than a foot long, as big as one’s wrist,nhaving seven protuberances, and towards the end some foot-stalks about three ornfour inches long, exactly like the foot-stalks of ferns, both without andnwithin. Most part of this was covered with a down of a dark yellowish snuff colour,nsome of it a quarter of an inch long.”

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nSloane was correct in identifyingnthe Vegetable Lamb as the product of arboreal ferns, and further evidence wasnsupplied by John Bell of Autermony, who travelled to Russia and Asia in thenearly eighteenth century, where he discovered hats made from lambskins innAstrakan, and made enquiries about the Lamb of Tartary. The locals showed himnexamples in the wild, a plant like a thistle without surrounding vegetation –nsomething not unusual, he says – adding

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n“… after a careful enquiry of thenmore sensible and experienced among the Tartars, I found they laughed at it asna ridiculous fable.”

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nThe example of artificial animal exhibited bynSloane was the root stock of the tree-fern of the genus Dicksonia, but thenfleece of the Vegetable Lamb came from a different plant. In Book III of his Histories,nHerodotus writes,

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n“And certain wild trees there bear wool instead of fruit,nthat in beauty and quality excels that of sheep; and the Indians make theirnclothing from these trees,”

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nand other classical writers relate tales of thenwool-bearing trees of India, who are cultivated for their fleeces, which arenmade into cloth; Julius Pollux, in his Onomasticon, says,

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n“There arenalso Byssina and Byssus, a kind of flax. But among the Indians a sort of woolnis obtained from a tree. The cloth made from this wool may be compared withnlinen, except that it is thicker. The tree produces a fruit most nearlynresembling a walnut, but three-cleft. After the outer covering, which is like anwalnut, has divided and become dry, the substance resembling wool is extracted,nand is used in the manufacture of cloth.”

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The ‘real’ Vegetable Lamb – a Cotton Bud

nThe confusion seems to havenarisen in a mis-translation of the Greek word used to describe the pods ofnthese trees – μήλον – ‘melon’ which can be rendered as ‘apple’, ‘fruit’ orn‘sheep’, and the adjectival word έαρινόν – ‘vernal’ – so the relevant phrasesncan be read as ‘spring apple’ or ‘spring lamb’. Cotton wool and lamb’s woolnbecame conflated and the talk of wool that grew on trees led to a literalninterpretation of the stories. Cotton cloth was not entirely unknown to thenancient civilizations of Greece and Rome, but it was more normal to use eithernlinen flax or wool for clothing. Cotton became much more important after thendiscovery of the New World. But that’s another story.