Beasts and men

READING the "Book of Beasts," a translation by T.H. White of a 12th-century bestiary from the original Latin manuscript, I realized how much of the English words we use today have Greek or Latin roots. I also saw how people so many centuries ago gave human attributes to animals. The entry on crocodiles read:

"Cocodryllus got its name from crocus or its saffron color...Its dung provides an ointment with which old and wrinkled whores anoint their figures and are made beautiful, until the flowing sweat of their efforts washes it away... Hypocritical, dissolute and avaricious people have the same nature as this brute -- also any people who are puffed up with the vice of pride, dirtied with the corruption of luxury, or haunted with the disease of avarice...pretending in the sight of men to be upright and indeed very saintly."

These days some politicians are still compared to crocodiles, but the ointment mentioned twice is really a thing of the past.

Monkeys being "similar" to humans received special attention:

"They are called MONKEYS (Simia) in the Latin language because people notice a great similitude to human reason in them. Wise in the lore of the elements, these creatures grow merry at the time of the new moon. At the half and full moon they are depressed...Simia is a Greek word meaning 'with squashed nostrils' hence we call monkeys this, because they have turned-up noses and a hideous countenance, with wrinkles lewdly puffing like bellows..."

As I mentioned in my last column, although there was a lot of material on mythical beasts like unicorns, satyrs and mermaids, I was more interested in real animals because they were seen differently eight centuries ago. There was even a belief that everything on earth had a counterpart under the sea and perhaps even in the heavens. If there were men on earth, then there were mermen in the sea; and like maidens on earth, there were mermaids like Marina in the water.
The beasts were also used to deliver moral or catechetical lessons. Imagine the mythical unicorn being explained parallel to Christ or certain animals acting like humans. For example the entry on the beaver reads:

"This is an animal called CASTOR the Beaver [because of the castration]. None more gentle, and his testicles make a capital medicine. For this reason, so Physiologus says, when he notices that he is being pursued by the hunter, he removes his own testicles with a bite, and casts them before the sportsman, and thus escapes by flight. What is more, if he should again happen to be chased by a second hunter, he lifts himself up and shows his members to him. And the latter, when he perceives the testicles to be missing, leaves the beaver alone."

If so much erudition can be spent on animals and mythical beasts, one can imagine what a book on man would be like. It's a pity that White did not translate the whole section on Man, the book after all being a bestiary, leaving us to speculate on what he described as "a remorseless catalogue of about 170 parts of the human body, with their function and the derivation of their names." The little he actually left for the reader's enjoyment, (and in very small print) left me with an appetite for more:

"The important finger is the thumb, which among other things is strong in virtue and power. The second is the forefinger, which is not only serviceable but is used for giving directions, because we generally salute or show or point out with it. The third is the middle finger, by means of which the pursuit of dishonour is indicated. The fourth finger is the ring finger, because the ring is worn on it. The finger is also medicinal, because the common eye-salves are applied with it by doctors. The fifth finger is called the auris because we scratch the ear with it."

What caught my attention was a line that read, "We laugh with the spleen, we are enraged with the gall-bladder, we have discernment with the heart and we love with the lover ... [M]uscles derive their name from mice because they move about under the skin as mice move under the earth ... [T]he seat of wantonness in women is the navel."
This reminded me of "The Body Book" edited by Fe Maria C. Arriola (my once and future mother-in-law) illustrated by the late Onib Olmedo that provided what was supposed to be a geography of the Filipino body through language, folklore, anthropology and culture. In 12th-century Europe, the fingers are described above; in the late 20th-century Philippines, the same fingers are described as government departments:

"Little finger (kalingkingan) is the Department of Hygiene because it is often used to clean the ear. Ring Finger (Palasinsingan or dumalaga) is the Department of Civil Relations because it is where the wedding ring is worn. Middle finger (Hinlalato or dato) is the Department of National Defense such as in the dirty finger sign... Pointer finger (Hintuturo) is the Department of Education. Obviously, the teacher is always wagging it. Thumb (Hinlalaki) is the Department of Justice because a thumbprint is the acceptable mode of identification."

The same parts of the body in a different time and culture reads differently as contemporary animals in a medieval bestiary. History is also similar: the same stories, the same data read differently over time, producing different versions, depending on who is narrating the story.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu