Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/215

 Collectanea. 205

book of Hadasi we find first a description of these curious dog-men, and then the tale of the adventures of a contemporary of his who said he had been among them, and also the manner how he has been saved.

It makes him the precursor of the Sinbad stories in the Arabian JVighis, and also brings us back to the story of Polyphem, no doubt a Greek story circulating in Byzance at that time, although it is vouched for by the author as one heard by him from the man who was so miraculously saved.

Now his description is as follows : There are men who from the head to the waist are like dogs, and from the waist downwards are like human beings. They talk with a human voice, and they also bark like dogs. Their feet are sponge-like webs, so that they cannot go in the water. They have three eyes, two in front and one at the back of their heads. Tiiey are cannibals, and they live in a land where pepper grows, and they trade in that com- modity with the merchants who come thither. When they catch a man singly they throw him into a pit, and there they fatten him. They give him first, however, a drink by which he loses his senses, and then they give him to eat honey and other sweet food, so that after a time he gets very fat, and then these dog-men eat the captive. When they think him ready to be eaten they try the captives first by slicing off a portion of his little finger to satisfy themselves that he has reached already the last degree of fatten- ing. If they find him ready for eating they impale him on a spit, and then putting him on the fire, they roast him and eat him. If they think that the man is not fat enough they cut his flesh up in slices and salt it and eat it in that state.

Once upon a time two travellers were caught by these dog-men, and they were thrown into the pit. One of them took what they gave him and drank of that narcotic beverage, and got so fat that they took him out and roasted him and ate it. But his companion, who saw what was in store for him, refused to eat and to drink what was given to him, and fasted and prayed, and so in con- sequence he was very lean and withered, so they left him alone. One night he managed to climb out of the pit and to enter the house of his captor. There he found a sword, and as they were all sleeping soundly, he killed the inhabitants of the house and ran