Note 1289 — Chapter XII · REGIONAL GEOGRAPHY

Peschel in his Abhandlungen, vol. i, 1877, p. 10, pointed out that some medieval commentators on the subject were disinclined to believe in the existence of these creatures because they were not included in Noah’s ark. St. Augustine, De civitate Dei, XVI, 8, had said: “Either such monsters do not exist at all, or else they are in no wise men, for in the latter case they would be sprung from Adam.” In the ninth century there was discussion as to whether or not the cynocephali in the north were descended from Adam. During our period no text that has been found by the writer questions their existence.