This page was part of a draft for a chapter on this topic that has now been published in its finished form in my book Telenothians, which is available here.
Leviticus forbids women to copulate either with goats or with horses. It must be the case then that at one time such couplings were common.
Human-horse hybrids, better known as centaurs, spend most of their time trotting through mythological scenery, and only rarely set hoof in the realm of observational science. But the existence of actual hybrids has in fact been reported on various occasions. Quite a few of these reports are quoted in this article.
In one of the earliest reports of the scientific era, Renaissance physician Ambroise Paré (1510-1590) claimed that a mare had foaled a colt at Verona which had the “well-formed head of a man, while the rest of him was a horse” (Paré 1982, p. 6). And in his encyclopedia of equine medicine (Adlersflügel 1703), the renowned equine veterinarian Georg Simon Winters von Adlersflügel speaks of this centaurian prodigy as if it were something to be believed, and he even provides a good quality illustration (see figure, above right).
These assertions refer to a report that first appeared in Albertino Mussato’s history of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII (see Mussati 1536, p. 52), which in translation reads,
At this time [i.e., May of the year 1315] on the Porcilio estate at Verona, a mare gave birth to a remarkable prodigy, a living quadruped with an equine body but the neck and head of a human being, which with its gibbering cries so terrified the peasant at whose cottage it was born, that when he saw it, he at once hacked it to death with his sword. He then impaled its head outside the door of the cottage to amaze passersby. Some among these reported him to the authorities, and he was summoned and interrogated about the begetting of this creature, and about why he without forethought so violently murdered it, with no proper authority, except in that he perhaps feared an attack. And in the end, he was condemned. All others were cleared of suspicion given that the monster was born outdoors, which concealed the facts of the matter. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original Latin.]
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The Centaur Family (Artist: Sebastiano Ricci)
And the English cleric Edward Topsell (circa 1572–1625) discussed centaurs in his History of Four-footed Beasts (1608). He expressed his opinion that it was “possible that such should be generated by unclean and natural copulation, but unpossible that they should live long after birth.”
Other scholars in the early scientific era reported the births of supposed centaurs and onocentaurs (onocentaurs are the supposed offspring of a donkey and a human being):
Jobus Fincelius, the 16th-century humanist and physician, described a deformed foal birthed in northern Germany in 1554 that supposedly had a human foot on its right foreleg, while the other foreleg was a stump (Wunderzeichen, 1556). According to Fincelius, “The rear feet were the ordinary hooves of a horse. It died after three days and was buried at the edge of the field.”
Gisbertus Voetius, rector of the University of Utrecht, recorded a woman at Padua giving birth to a horse in the year 1625 (cited in Schurig 1732, p. 679).
In a letter appearing in an appendix of Paul Zacchias’ Quaestiones medico-legales, the Italian physician and botanist Pietro Castelli commented in the same vein, stating that in 1634 a woman in the city of Messina gave “birth to a being that looked like a donkey” (see: de Ceglia 2014).
In his compendium of anatomical anomalies (Historiarum Anatomicarum Rariorum [...], 1654, Centuria II, p. 242), the Danish mathematician and physician Thomas Bartholin, reported that in Amsterdam in 1637 a woman, the wife of a cobbler, gave birth to a daughter with the head of a horse.
The Portuguese physician Gaspar de los Reyes Franco
(Elysius iucundarum quaestionum campus, omnium literarum amoenissima [...], 1661, quaest. 45, no. 27, p. 325, 1661, quaest. 45, no. 27, p. 325), who practiced in the Spanish city of Carmona, avers that he was told by Juan de Orduña, a Jesuit professor at the College of Carmona (who Reyes Franco describes as “a man of illustrious character”), that he himself had seen a creature birthed by a she-ass but with “the hands, feet and face of a human being.” Orduña stated that a priest from the nearby Guadajoz valley, where it supposedly had been born, had consulted authorities at the college as to whether this half-human should be baptized.
In 1674 a certain Jane Paterson, living at Dodington in Northumberland was reported to have given birth to an offspring with the head, mane, and hooves of a horse, but which was like a human otherwise (Moreley 1892, p. 248). It was known as the Northumberland Monster and was, according to the report, scalded to death immediately after birth. (For details see Vaughan 1674.)
Christian Franz Paullini (1686) communicated an abridgement of a manuscript compilation of curiosities collected by the monks Isibordus von Amelunxen and Alexander Insulanus at the Imperial Abbey of Corvey around 1200 A.D. Observation XLVI Paullini 1686, p. 209 of that compilation mentions the birth of a boy with ears like those of a donkey, the result of "a pregnancy his mother contracted in sin." (See also: Isensee 1843, p. 287)
The Monstrous Tartar
This section is a collection zone for illustrations and information about the so-called Monstrous Tartar, supposedly captured by German forces fighting the Turks in 1664. According to accounts, he mixed the features a horse and a human.
An artist’s reconstruction of a human-horse hybrid described in testimony given during the course of a court martial held in Sweden in 1706 (for details see text at left).
And such reports persisted well beyond the seventeenth century. Douthwaite (1997) says that “accounts of animal-human interbreeding abound in eighteenth-century natural histories and reveal a curiosity mixed with repulsion for hybrids of all kinds.”
Jonas Lillequist (2006, pp. 159-162) documents an interesting Swedish court case in which the accused supposedly encountered a human-horse hybrid. In 1706, a Colonel Anders Sparfeldt served as head of a military tribunal trying a soldier named Sven Jönsson who had left his regiment without leave. Jönsson claimed that during his time away he had had intercourse with a being who was a woman in every aspect except that she had “shaggy legs and a mare’s tail.”
By the end of the trial, Sparfeldt, who had closely interrogated Jönsson, reached the conclusion that this event had in fact occurred, and that the creature in question was the product of a mating between a man and a mare. Sparfeldt had a portrait (shown at right) drawn of the “woman” after the soldier’s description.
Gmelin 1709-1755
Voltaire 1694-1778
Such comments appear in the writings of the most enlightened writers of the era. In his Reise durch Siberien (1752, p. 460), the German naturalist and geographer Johann Georg Gmelin (1709-1755) describes his experiences during an expedition across Siberia. There he mentions in passing that, at one of the towns he passed through, a colt was born with a human head. And Voltaire says (Essay on the Customs and Spirit of Nations, 1756):
Nearly all of the ancient authors speak of satyrs [i.e., goat-human hybrids]. I do not consider their existence impossible. … Leviticus forbids women to copulate either with goats or with horses. It must be the case then that at one time such couplings were common. And, so far as one can tell, it is to be presumed that monstrous species could have been born of these abominable amours.
Elsewhere he writes (Voltaire 1768, vol. VIII, pp. 120-121):
Was there indeed a race of satyrs, that is to say, were there girls who became pregnant by the same means that monkeys do, and who gave birth to hybrid offspring in the same way that mares give birth to mules and jumarts? All antiquity testifies to these singular facts. Many saints have seen satyrs—this is not an article of faith. So the thing is quite possible, but it must have been rare. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original French.]
Centaurs in the 19th Century
Throughout much of the nineteenth century the idea was widespread, even among the educated, that sexual relations between a human and an animal could result in the production of hybrid offspring. For example, an 1827 report in a German medical journal (quoted in translation elsewhere on this website) describes a supposed human-cow hybrid. And the following report, which describes a cyclopean centaur birthed in what is now Alexandria, Virginia, appeared in The Compiler (Feb. 11, 1824, p. 2), a newspaper published in Gettysburg, Virginia:
And, as the newspaper era unfolded, such accounts were still being published. For example, the following article appeared in column 6 of the front page of the April 8, 1859, issue of The Hancock Jeffersonian, a newspaper published Findlay, Ohio (source). The same report ran in various other newspapers around the U.S.
A Colt with a Human Head
On Monday afternoon last, we saw a freak of nature which bids fair to outrival all creation, and however Munchausen it may appear to our readers, having seen it with our own eyes, and felt it with our own hands, we can vouch for the truth of all the particulars made in the subjoined statement, which we compiled, in the main, with the animal before us.
On the 13th instant, in the northwest part of this township, a mare, belonging to Mr. B. T. Day, foaled a colt having a head that much resembles that of a human being.—The frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal bones are formed and united like those of a man. Phrenologically, physicians have decided, that its head indicates more intelligence than the heads of most children at birth. Its physiognomy varies from that of a man in having a nose that resembles that of a bull-dog, and has but one slit-like nostril extending across the middle of the nose. The nose projects abruptly from the lower part of the face about two inches, under which is an upper and lower jaw, resembling that of a horse. It has a horn on the inside of the mouth, situated about the middle of the upper jaw; in front of this horn the entire inside of the mouth is like that of a horse—back of it, it resembles the human mouth; and placing the hand so as to cover the parts in front of this horn in the mouth, the human head is complete, with the exception of the ears, which are back of the head, at the extreme upper end of the neck, and resemble those of a horse. The eyes are a decided mixture—physicians being of the opinion that in some respects they resemble those for a horse, in others those of a dog, while in others those of a man. The bones of the neck are like those of a horse, while in shape the neck resembles that of a man. Its body and limbs are those of the horse. Altogether it is certainly the greatest wonder of the nineteenth century.
It is carefully preserved in spirits, and preparations are being made for its exhibition to the public.
North Fairfield Gazette
A cyclops. A notice about the birth of a centaur on page 2, column 1, of the June 30, 1859, issue of the Bradford Reporter a newspaper published in Towanda, Pennsylvania (source).
—Samuel Brandt, of New Britain [Township], Bucks County, [Pennsylvania] has a mare that recently had a colt whose head resembled the human face, and has but one eye right in the center of the head. It died shortly after its birth. The owner has preserved its hide.
The following is an article on page 3, column 3, of the November 2, 1865, issue of the Nashville Daily Union, a paper published in Nashville, Tennessee (source):
The Wonder of the Age
We recently noted the discovery, at Nashville, Tenn., of a remarkable Lusus naturae. The monstrosity has a human head and features, while the body and legs are of the brute creation. It is called half horse and half man, and these dual characteristics are said to be singularly prominent and well defined. To what class or order of conformation does this wonder belong? With our limited knowledge of animal monstrosities, we are totally unable to assign it a connective place with any known phenomena of nature. It belongs to none of the tribes or families enumerated and discussed by the historians of teratology, but seems to be the actual representation of that species of deformity which had only a fabulous existence in and prior to the seventeenth century. In those days of superstition, the Minotaur, the centaurs, satyrs, dragons, tritus, siren, and mermaids were regarded as creatures half human half animal, but this mythological belief is no longer shared by any but the hopelessly ignorant and credulous. The astounding fact is established beyond cavil that such a freak (the unity of man and beast) does exist in the form now on exhibition at Nashville. It surely is a subject for philosophical and medical study, and we hope some of the modern Hippocrateses, Aristotles, Plinys, Galens, or St. Hilaires will investigate it for the enlightenment of our own country and the world. This great phenomenal curiosity is in the possession of Dr. L. L. Coleman, a prominent physician of Nashville. As a man of superior attainments in the sciences of anatomy and embryology, he treats it as the veritable wonder of the times. The attention of the medical world will be attracted to it and result in the most remarkable demonstration of fetal mystery.
The above mentioned "monstrosity" is attracting considerable attention in this city. The exhibition is visited daily by hundreds of deeply interested spectators, who take part in the discussion as to what it can be. Go and see it, if you have not already done so.
Another case was reported on page 4, column 1, of the July 13, 1866, issue of The Hancock Jeffersonian, a newspaper published in Findlay, Ohio (source).
A Monstrosity
A lusus naturae described by a St. Louis paper, as follows has been seen in Missouri.
"At Wellsburg, St. Charles county, Mo., a colt was born having but one eye, and that in the center of the forehead;it was a large white eye, with a black heart in the center.
It had no nose, and the mouth and chin were the same as a man, with a beard on its chin. The jaws worked exactly like a man's. The body, legs and tail are perfectly like a horse, and it is three feet six inches [1.07 m] tall. It is regarded as 'the wonder of the age,' and large crowds from the country round go to see it."
A brief notice about a centaur appeared on the front page, bottom of column 2, of the June 20, 1867, issue of The Jeffersonian, a newspaper published in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania (source).
A mare of Samuel Burbank of Coventry, Vt., gave birth recently, it is said, to a colt with a human head.
And the following report appeared on page 5, column 2, of the June 6, 1868, issue of The Ottawa Free Trader, a newspaper published in Ottawa, Illinois (source).
A Colt with a Human Face—A colt with a human face is the latest sensation in Lewis County [Missouri]. Says the American of the 14th: “We learn that a large gray mare belonging to Robert Harrison, a farmer residing about five miles west of La Grange [a city in Lewis County], gave birth to a colt, a few days since, having a face strangely resembling the human features divine. In every other part except the head it is not unlike any other young colt, and may be considered well formed up to its ears, where the human-like face begins. The eyes are smaller than usual, and very expressive; the nose is flat, while the nostrils are thin, the nose having quite a ridge through its center. The mouth, lips, and chin are modeled after the human form and are quite perfect. The colt has no teeth, which is unusual, and cannot obtain its nourishment from its mother, but is fed milk with a spoon. Its breathing seems difficult and hard, and it is not very active, being loath to stand upon its feet. We have given this account from the description furnished us by a gentleman who saw the colt on Tuesday afternoon, and numbers of our citizens are going out to see it every day. It is thought that it will not live, but if it should, arrangements will be made to exhibit it over the country.
“P.S. since the above was in type, we learn that the colt died on Tuesday night.”
Cases of women birthing centaurs
Another example, involving a woman giving birth to a horselike offspring, appears in the May 5, 1847, issue of the Viennese newspaper Der Humorist, eine Zeitschrift für Scherz und Ernst, Kunst, Theater, Geselligkeit und Sitt:
Remarkable Monstrosity. The journal of the Russian Ministry of the Interior, which in addition to births of monstrosities, reports other things such as violent deaths and various accidents, tells (in the Feb. 1847 issue) of a monstrosity “that is so remarkable that one knows not what to think of it.” The wife of a Siberian farmer in the Nerchinsky District, Mariana Klioutchewa, 22 years of age, gave birth on the 23rd of October last year [1846] to a thing that bore absolutely no resemblance to a human being, rather it was much more like a horse, that is, it had a horse’s head and hooves, a small tail, extraordinarily large eyes and 19 ribs on either side. [Translated by E. M. McCarthy. Original German. Note: Horses also have 19 ribs on each side. Humans have 12.]
This last report, about a woman giving birth to a horse, can be compared to the 1625 case in Padua of a woman birthing a horse, and the 1634 case at Messina of woman giving birth to a donkey (both mentioned above).
And other American reports also describe a women giving birth to creatures with anatomical traits characteristic of horses. One was a notice that appeared on page 6, column 5, of the August 22, 1891, issue of the Pittsburg Dispatch, a newspaper published in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania (source):
HALF HUMAN, HALF COLT
An Ohio Freak Which, if It Lives, Must Walk on All Fours
St. Mary’s [Ohio], Aug. 21.—A monstrosity in the shape of a newly-born child is attracting a great deal of attention in the neighborhood of Yorkshire, a village in Dark [sic] County, 19 miles from here. The shoulder blades of the curiosity are more than normally developed. In fact the abnormal portion begins at the throat, increasing remarkably downward. The chest is somewhat rounded—on the barrel-shaped order. On the little one’s shoulders is lump, dark colored, which is claimed by medical men to be the result of "spina bifida,"* or cloven spine. This lump has opened, and physicians say it will soon cause the death of the child.
The most remarkable part of the child is the portion from the hips down, which greatly resemble that portion of a colt. The legs are set at a right angle with the body. They have no backward, but, on the contrary, a perceptible forward motion. They cannot be straightened out, and the child, if it lives, will be obliged to walk on all fours. Then the feet are ball-shaped, one resembling that of a young colt, while the other is more nearly normal.
* The incidence of spina bifida and anencephaly appear to be significantly elevated in distant hybrids.
Another report, while containing fewer details about the structure of the alleged hybrid, gave specifics as to the identity of the woman who gave it birth. The notice appeared on page 4, column 5, of the August 18, 1891, issue of The Wilmington Daily Republican, a newspaper published in Wilmington, Delaware (source):
A Baby Like a Colt
Springfield, O., August 17.—Greenville,† west of here, is just now the Mecca of curiosity hunters. They want to see a male child recently born to Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Whitehead. It is part human and part animal. The child was born alive and is doing well. Mrs. Whitehead, prior to the advent of the monstrosity, gave birth to six healthy, perfect and well-developed children.
This infant is fully developed, and weighs about eight pounds. After birth it seemed dead, but by careful management it came to. It is abnormal from its head down. The legs resemble those of a colt, even to the feet, which, while not exactly hoofs, are on club-foot order. The child, if it lives, will be obliged from its peculiar formation to travel on all fours.
† Greenville is the seat of Darke County. The village of Yorkshire, where this birth supposedly occurred, is also in Darke County.
Another such case case was mentioned in a news report about two abnormal births, one, a child born without the top of its skull (omitted here), the other, a child born fully like a horse from the navel up. This report appeared on the front page, column 5, of the February 15, 1889, issue of the Fort Worth Daily Gazette, a newspaper published in Fort Worth, Texas (source):
BROUGHT FORTH MONSTROSITIES
Influence of a Quack Doctor and Fright from a Horse on Ladies Approaching Maternity
Cincinnati Enquirer.
SIDNEY, OHIO, Feb. 11.—The birth of two monstrous children occurred here within the past three days. In the case of the first child [description of first child omitted]…
In the case of the second child it proved to be, from its stomach up, a complete horse. Its arms stood out like the forelegs of a horse, and instead of hands were perfectly formed hoofs. The child lived two days. Several months ago the mother went into the barn with her husband. She passed in front of the mangers and a horse snapped at her, causing great fright.
In the previous year, “A woman at Anderson Ind[iana] gave birth to a child half human, half horse. The mother was thrown from [a] carriage some months ago,” according to a notice on the front page, column 5, of the December 17, 1888, issue of The Evening Bulletin, a newspaper published in Maysville, Kentucky (source).
For centuries, the birth of human offspring with animal-like traits were explained by asserting that the mother in question had been frightened by an animal that matched the traits of the “child,” such supposed effects of the mother's experiences on the unborn child were known as "maternal impressions." No doctor takes the theory of maternal impressions seriously today.
Other centaurs birthed by mares
Williamsport, Maryland. A case of a mare giving birth to a centaur is reported in the Shepherdstown, West Virginia, Register, a newspaper published in (May 4, 1872, p. 1, col. 5):
A Monster—One day this week on the farm of Mr. Graves, a few miles below town [i.e., Williamsport, Maryland] in the direction of Two Locks, a mare gave birth to a foal which had a human head—at least in appearance. From a gentleman who saw this curious freak of nature we learn that the head of what should have been a colt, bore a horrible likeness to the head of a human being. The ears small and setting upon the side, the top of the head round and covered with a glossy suit of fine velvety hair, and the general outlines of the face bearing a strong likeness to humanity. The man-brute lived but a few hours, but the head has been preserved.—Williamsport Pilot.
Williamsport lies on the Potomac River about seventy miles above Washington, D.C.
Fort Wayne, Indiana. In 1873, in the McArthur, Ohio Vinton Record (May 22, 1873, p. 1, col. 6), the following account appeared:
A few days since, on a farm six miles from Ft. Wayne, Ind., on the Blufton road, there was foaled a horse colt which was part human. It had the head, neck, breast and forelegs of a horse, and the rest of its body was human. It was foaled alive, and no doubt would have lived and been the greatest monstrosity ever created. The owner, however, killed the creature as soon as it was foaled.
Hybrids are often killed at birth, or soon thereafter, by owners who view them as unnatural monsters.
Shawnee County, Kansas. A brief notice appeared in the Wichita, Kansas City Eagle (Aug. 12, 1875, p. 2, col. 3). It states that “A Shawnee County mare gave birth to a well developed colt with a human head.”
A curious freak of nature was on exhibition in Upper Sandusky [Ohio] last week. It was a colt with a head shaped like a human person’s, the face and eyes resemble those of a man, except that the face was covered with hair, and the lower jaw projected like that of a natural colt. The fore legs were perfect to the feet which slightly resembled human feet. The monstrosity was foaled on the farm of A. B. Inman, near Whartonsburg [now Wharton, Ohio, a village in Wyandot County]. Owing to the imperfect development of the nasal organs it lived but a short time.
Franklin County, Tennessee. A brief notice about a centaur appeared on the front page, column 5, of the December 14, 1881, issue of The Morristown Gazette, a newspaper published in Morristown, Tennessee (source). It reads, “Mr. E. Kellogg, of Franklin County, has on exhibition in Winchester [Tennessee] a colt with a human head and neck.”
Montgomery County, Missouri. Another centaur was reported in the Woodsfield, Ohio, Spirit of Democracy (Jan. 15, 1884, p. 3, col. 2):
A Colt with a Human Head
There was shown at a fair in Missouri recently a living curiosity from Montgomery County, that State, and exhibited by two citizens of that county. A colt with a human head, a most extraordinary freak of nature, the human cast seeming to run as far back as the fore-shoulder, when the lines of the colt set in. The location of the eyes and ears and the head was decidedly human.
Sharon Springs, New York. In 1885, a centaur was allegedly foaled in upstate New York. The following is a transcript of a report on the front page, column 4, of the November 27, 1885, issue of the Barbour County Index, a newspaper published in Medicine Lodge, Kansas (source):
Nature’s Wonderful Freak
[Canajoharie (N.Y.) Special]
Veterinary Surgeon Pulman, of this village, was called to Sharon Springs [a village in Schoharie County, New York] to attend a foaling case yesterday, the mare being a trotter owned by Dr. Howard Green, of New York. Two thousand dollars had been refused for her. During parturition the mare and foal died. The colt’s head above the eyes resembled a human cranium there being a place for the ears and eyes, and the soft spot on the top [i.e., the fontanelle], which is never found on the colt. The lower part of the head resembled almost perfectly the face of a pug dog, the mouth being dark colored. The malformed head was taken to Utica to be preserved.
Portland, Oregon. A notice about a talking centaur appeared in the Albany, Oregon, State Rights Democrat, a newspaper published in (June 20, 1890, p. 1, col. 3):
A Freak.—There is now on exhibition in Portland a curious freak of nature, says an exchange. It is half man and half horse having limbs formed like a horse and a shaggy mane growing on the back of his neck. His head is like that of a colored man, with a very intelligent face. He can trot at a three minute gait, and converse freely with visitors.
Macomb, Illinois. In 1891, the residents of Macomb, Illinois witnessed a mare giving birth to a foal with a human head, or at least so says a story that appeared in numerous papers around the country. The following from the Wichita, Kansas Daily Eagle (Mar. 13, 1891, p. 2, col. 1):
A MONSTROSITY
MACOMB, Ills., March 12.—A remarkable curiosity made its appearance in the world here yesterday morning. A mare belonging to Asher Blount gave birth to a colt about noon. The little animal was a perfectly formed horse, with the exception of its head, which was as near like that of a man as it could be without being human. The neck is rather long and slender; the cerebrum is round and about the size of a grown man; the ears are delicately formed, and in proportion to the size of the head; the mouth and nose, though in their proper place, are very much deformed, the two joining each other. The nose is like that of a horse, and the mouth is very wide. There are no eyes, and apparently no place for any. The little animal lived but a few minutes. It will probably be preserved in alcohol and placed on exhibition.
Guthrie, Oklahoma. And in following year of 1892, we have the news of a centaur being born in the town of Guthrie, Oklahoma. One report appeared in the Bismarck, North Dakota, Weekly Tribune (Feb. 5, 1892, p. 2, col. 2):
A Remarkable Freak
Guthrie, O. T., Jan. 28.—A remarkable freak of nature is attracting universal attention here. It is a colt born on the farm of W. H. Dysart with the perfect head of a human being and the body of a horse.
Another report about the Guthrie event appeared in the issue of the Fort Worth, Texas, Gazette (Feb. 4, 1892, p. 1, col. 4). This story originated with the Watertown Public Opinion, a newspaper published in Watertown, South Dakota.
Colt with a Negro’s Head
Guthrie, O. T., January 27— In a livery stable in this city a strange freak was born yesterday. It is a colt with the body of a horse and the perfect head of a negro, and is being viewed by thousands of curious people.
Guthrie is the county seat of Logan County, Oklahoma.
A more detailed, eyewitness report about the Guthrie centaur appeared in the Wichita, Kansas, Daily Eagle (Jan. 29, 1892, p. 5, col. 2):
A Freak of Nature
A Colt With a Mans Head Brought to the City For Embalming
Yesterday morning when the Santa Fe train came from the south it brought one of the most remarkable monstrosities ever seen in this city. It was no more nor less than a colt with a human head. It was handled as if it was a human body, for the animal was dead, and taken to the undertaking establishment of Boaz & Gill when the artistic embalmer of that firm, M. H. Miller, proceeded at once to embalm it. Through the courtesy of that gentleman, an Eagle man was given entrance to the room here the monstrosity was. It was laid out on a slab and was then undergoing the process of embalming. The body is of the shape of a colt, but the head is distinctively human. The body is devoid of hair and looks in almost every respect like the body of a Mexican dog. It is of a brownish color, something like the color of sole leather. The head is very interesting. It is almost precisely the shape of the lower order of human beings and the eye has a look of intelligence about it that is really astonishing. The ears are not fully developed at the side of the head, but the outlines of the human ears are plainly visible. There are two small ears on the back of the head which bear a resemblance to horses ears, only that they are very small. The top of the head is covered with black hair, which is almost as fine as silk, and that is the only suggestion of hair about the body.
Logan County, O. T., has the honor of producing the monstrosity. It is now the property of Dr. Moore, who had a museum in this city recently, who bought it from its original owner [i.e., W. H. Dysart, see above], a farmer living near Guthrie. Mr. Miller will spend two days embalming it, and, when he has it completed, it will be sufficiently preserved to be kept on exhibition for a long time.
Ashland, Wisconsin. The next report is from the Concord, North Carolina, Daily Concord Standard (Oct. 16, 1897, p. 4):
Horse’s Body, Boy’s Head
Dr. G. W. Barlow, a veterinary surgeon of Ashland, Wis., is here [i.e., in Asheville, North Carolina] with what is termed “the modern centaur,” which is to be kept on exhibition for a time. The freak stands about 18 inches high, and has the body of a colt and the head of a human. The freak was born at Ashland, Wis., January 25, 1895, and lived two hours. It has been in Dr. Barlow’s possession ever since its birth. He has a certificate signed by a number of business and professional men of Ashland testifying to its genuineness.—Asheville Citizen.
Harrison, Kentucky. Another brief notice about a centaur appeared in the Paris, Kentucky, Bourbon News (May 2, 1899, p. 5, col. 1):
On Frank Ammerman’s place in Harrison there was foaled last week a colt which has eyes, eyebrows, forehead, nose and mouth like a human, the rest of the body being that of a perfectly formed colt.
A faked animation of a centaur produced by early film director George Méliès (1861-1938). Note that this phony is shown with three pairs of limbs, whereas all reports alleging the existence of actual centaurs say there are two pairs (although in some cases those limbs are said to be imperfectly developed).
Centaurs: Twentieth Century
Lewiston, Idaho. The next transcript, about a 35-year-old horse-human hybrid found outside Lewiston, Idaho, takes news stories about centaurs into the twentieth century. It is copied from the , of the issue of the Grangeville, Idaho Free Press (Aug. 20, 1903, p. 1, col. 4):
Strange Freak in Lewiston
Half human and half horse, a being 35 years old was discovered in the suburbs of Lewiston having the body of a man and the head of a horse. It stands about two feet six inches high, covered with hair over a foot long, without human intelligence or power of speech and eats grass like a horse. After much persuasion the parents, after being promised that the strange freak would be well cared for and its parentage not disclosed, have made arrangements with Lewiston parties to exhibit the freak and in all probability the people of Grangeville and vicinity will have an opportunity to see it at the coming street fair.
This last case is reminiscent of the 1637 case in Amsterdam reported by Thomas Bartholin, in which a woman gave birth to a daughter with the head of a horse.
Another story about a rather elderly centaur, this one 39 years of age, appeared on the front page, column 1, of the December 29, 1903 issue of The Daily Telegram, a newspaper published in Clarksburg, West Virginia (source):
HUMAN FREAK IS EXHIBITED
In Well's Marble Shop, Attracting Scores of People.—Is Half Human and Half Horse
Well's marble shop on West Pike Street is the scene of an unusual attraction, and hundreds of people are flocking thither. There is an exhibition there that excites the curiosity of men, and well it may. It is, indeed, something novel, a veritable freak in human creation. The show is called "Half Man Half Horse," and such it really appears. The Telegram ought to know, for it saw it Monday night. The manager of the show is Frank Lewis, a very clever fellow, with all the characteristics of Barnum, except that he does not fool the people, but, to the contrary, gives exactly what is on the bills, no more and no less. The monstrosity is Jim Bond, and that he is half human and half horse no one who sees him will dispute. He is 39 years of age, and has been on exhibition for 26 years. He has been shown all over Europe and part of other eastern continents. Kings and queens have seen him and marveled. Many people of Clarksburg have already seen him and his performances and been confused over the productions the earth brings forth. He attracted scores at 1 o'clock this afternoon. Tonight is the last chance to see him, according to the information given by the manager to the Telegram, and hundreds will be there.
This last report refers to phony centaur James Bond, an individual with joint deformities, who for years was billed as a real human-horse mix.
Grand Forks, North Dakota. The following notice appeared in the Minot, North Dakota, Ward County Independent (Jun. 14, 1905, p. 9, .col. 2):
Mr. Reddick from Grand Forks, is at the Booth building in Minot this week with a most interesting exhibit of freaks. He has a hatted [?] colt which weighed 202 pounds at birth. The colt seems to have a human head, covered with human hair. The skull appears to be like that of a man.
Cape Charles, Virginia. The following report appeared in the Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch (Aug. 26, 1909, p. 5, col. 7):
Some Freaks of Nature
[Special to The Times-Dispatch]
CAPE CHARLES, VA., August 25.—C. W. Lord, a farmer of Camden, has a few freaks of nature on his Jones Neck farm. A few days ago a black mare gave birth to a mule colt that, instead of hoof feet, had four hands each with fingers. The colt was perfect in every other way and very healthy, but it could not stand up, and died three days after birth. …
Jones Neck is a cape in Chesterfield County, Virginia.
Bloomingdale, Kentucky. Another case in which only the pedal extremities were reported affected appeared in the Los Angeles Herald (Jun. 7, 1897, p. 6, col. 4), however, the hoofs were supposedly replaced with human feet, not hands. The brief notice states that a “party near Bloomingdale [Kentucky] reports to [t]his paper that a mare of Tom Adams has a colt whose body is half bay and half gray; that its feet look like human feet.” This creature, then, would have been like the steed supposedly ridden in ancient times by Julius Caesar.
Redding, California. Another twentieth-century report, this time involving a cyclops, appeared in the Red Bluff, California, Red Bluff Daily News (Apr. 2, 1915, p. 4, col. 4):
COLT BORN WITH SLAYER’S FEATURES IN SHASTA COUNTY
REDDING, April 1.—A colt with the features of a murderer stamped upon its deformed face was born early Wednesday morning at the ranch of John Lutz, the Stillwater stockman. The animal had but one eye and that was prominently set in the middle of the forehead. There was no indication of nostrils, the colt taking its breath during its life of a few hours through a strangely formed mouth, the under jaw of which protruded nearly two inches.
Persons at the Lutz farm say that the colt’s revolting features bore an unmistakable resemblance to John M. Level, a cripple of unpleasing countenance, who slew Joe Pareenti on the Lutz farm last summer. Level is now in the penitentiary.
The story is that Level was driving the deformed colt’s mother when she was early in foal. Being a neurotic, he became wildly enraged at the mare, because she did not properly respond to his control of the reins, and, it is related, Level attacked the animal with his fists. He is then said to have choked her with his gorilla like arms. It is evident that the features of the colt bear uncanny resemblance to the human, but distorted, malevolent and ghastly in their expression. Thus it is believed the colt was marked, receiving the frightened mother’s impression of a brutal face, the remainder of the body being exceptionally well formed and developed.
In spite of the malformation, the animal lived until it was shot at 11 o’clock. Dr. G. C. Taylor, who was called from Redding, cut off the head and all afternoon the freak of nature was viewed by sightseers in this city who are interested in anything out of the ordinary, from a two-headed chicken to a six-legged calf.
Dr. Taylor says the freak is unheard of. He will send the head east for mounting.
Blooming Grove, Minnesota. One report refers to a monkey-horse, rather than a human-horse, hybrid. The creature in question supposedly was like a horse except that it had a head like that of a monkey. Since monkey heads are rather similar to those of humans, this case is listed here. The report appeared in the Milbank, South Dakota, Herald-Advance (Jun. 14, 1895, p. 3, col. 4):
MONKEY-FACED COLT
A Museum Freak Born Near Waseca Recently.
Waseca, Minn., June 12. — Charles Fell of Blooming Grove township is the owner of a two-year-old colt that is a monstrosity the equal of which is seldom seen outside of museums. The colt is well formed with exception of its head, which very closely resembles that of a monkey. Mr. Fell said that when the colt was born he did not think it would live long, but now it seems to be as lively as any other colt of its age, and nothing will apparently prevent is reaching a ripe old age. The colt is attracting numerous visitors to Mr. Fell’s farm. On the farm is a pig with five toes on one of its feet. Mr. Fell says if things keep on at this rate his farm will soon have a side show.
So the above are all the reports from the post-medieval era that diligent search has as yet revealed. But there are probably others out there. If you know of one, please contact the website.
The Centaur Family (Artist: Sebastiano Ricci)
Gmelin
Voltaire
A faked animation of a centaur produced by early film director George Méliès (1861-1938). Note that this phony is shown with three pairs of limbs, whereas all reports alleging the existence of actual centaurs say there are two pairs (although in some cases those limbs are said to be imperfectly developed).
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