Fig. 3.—The vegetable lamb of Tartary.
In [Fig. 3] is shown Joannes Zahn's idea of what this wonderful "Barometz or Tartarian lamb" was like. Now, mainly through an imaginative Englishman named Sir John Mandeville, who lived in the reign of Edward III., did this latter form of the story find its way into England.
This illustrious traveller left his native country in 1322, and for over thirty years traversed the principal countries of Europe and Asia. When he came home he commenced to write a history of his remarkable travels. In these are found references to the Cotton plant, and so curious an account does he give of it, that it has been considered worth reproduction in his own words: "And there growethe a maner of Fruyt, as though it weren Gourdes: and whan ther been rype men kutten hem ato, and men fynden with inne a lyttle Best, in Flesche, in Bon and Blode, as though it were a lytylle Lomb with outen Wolle. And men eten both the Frut and the Best; and that is a great Marveylle. Of that Frute I have eaten; alle thoughe it were wondirfulle, but that I knowe well that God is Marveyllous in his Werkes."
No wonder that many accepted his account of the "Vegetable Lamb" without question. When a nobleman of the reputation of Sir J. Mandeville stated that he had actually eaten of the fruit of the Cotton, was there any need for further doubt?
It appears, however, that contemporary with Mandeville was another traveller, an Italian Friar, named Odoricus, who also had travelled in Asia and heard of the plant which yielded cotton. He, too, fell a prey to the lamb theory. Many other writers and travellers followed, all more or less believing in the plant animal theory. However, in 1641, Kircher of Avignon in describing cotton declared it to be a plant. And so the story for years passed through many changes. First one would assert what he considered to be the right solution, and this was immediately challenged by the next investigator, so that assertion and contradiction followed each other in quick succession.
In 1725, however, a German doctor named Breyn communicated with the Royal Society on the subject of the "Vegetable lamb," emphatically stating the story to be nothing more or less than a fable. He very naïvely remarked that "the work and productions of nature should be discovered, not invented," and he threw doubts as to whether those who had written about the mythical lamb had ever seen one.
When the writings and dissertations of Mandeville, Odoricus and others are carefully considered, these conclusions force themselves upon us: that direct personal observation must have played a very minor part in the attempt to get at the truth in connection with the origin and growth of the Cotton plant.
Their statements stand in very sharp contrast with those of writers who lived before the Christian era commenced. Of these, mention must be made of Herodotus, surnamed the Father of History.