Scythian lamb

Claude Duret: Histoire admirable des plantes et herbes esmerueillables et miraculeuses en nature , 1605

Illustration from the book The Vegetable Lamb of Tartary , 1887

“The Boramez, or Scythian Lamb” in the picture book for children by Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch

The Scythian lamb ( Agnus scythicus ), vegetable lamb ( Agnus vegetabilis ) or tree lamb , also called Borametz , is a mythological creature that has both animal and plant properties.

mythology

The Scythian lamb grows / lives in the land of the Scythians and Tatars .

The trunk of the plant that the lamb carries by its navel is very flexible so that the lamb can swing back and forth to get to the surrounding grass. If the area has been eaten bare, the vegetable lamb starves to death. In addition to starvation, the Scythian lamb has the wolf as a natural enemy because of its tender meat . It also has to fear humans, since they desire their magnificent golden fur and their magical blood (Paleae Cibotii).

botany

There is a plant that is reminiscent of the tree lamb : The tree fern Cibotium barometz (vegetable lamb) from the Cyatheace family on the Sunda Islands , in southern China and India , has a prostrate trunk that is densely covered with golden brown hair. In the Middle Ages, all sorts of fables were told about the trunk of this fern, which happened to have the shape of a four-legged animal and was called the Scythian lamb (Agnus scythicus).

The hair of similar South Asian Cyatheacees is sometimes used officially as Paku Kidang .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Denis Diderot: Agnus Skythicus In: L'Encyclopédie. 1st edition, 1751, pp. 179-180
↑ J. Philip Breyn [ius]: Dissertiuncula de Agno Vegetabili Scythico, Bora Metz Vulgo Dicto. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Volume 33, No. 390, 1725, p. 353; Reprinted in 1734 google books .

Web links

Commons : Scythian Lamb - Collection of images, videos and audio files

The legend of the tree lamb ( Memento from August 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

[L’Encyclopédie-1] Denis Diderot: Agnus Skythicus In: L'Encyclopédie. 1st edition, 1751, pp. 179-180

[2] J. Philip Breyn [ius]: Dissertiuncula de Agno Vegetabili Scythico, Bora Metz Vulgo Dicto. In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Volume 33, No. 390, 1725, p. 353; Reprinted in 1734 google books .