Wit over zwart - Rene van Maarsseveen

114
the Antiquities and Wonders of the World... Out of the Sixteen First Books of...
Pliny. Het was een inventaris van wonderlijke wezens, waaronder eenogigen,
hondkoppigen, menseneters, Troglodyten, spermatofagen en antipoden of tegenvoeters
nog de minst verontrustende waren. Zo wordt ons over de Ethiopen verteld:
Bierviltjes: Oranjeboom (Nederland) en Pappenfabrik Haunoldmühle (Duitsland). Collectienrs
1530 en 1529
Of the Ethiopians there are divers forms and kinds of men. Some there are toward
the east that have neither nose nor nostrils, but the face all full. Others that have no
upper lip, they are without tongues, and they speak by signs, and they have but a
little hole to take their breath at, by the which they drink with an oaten straw. There
are some called Syrbote that are eight foot high, they live with the chase of elephants.
In a part of Affricke be people called Ptoemphane, for their king they have a dog, at
whose fancy they are governed... Etc. 10
Wat opvalt is hoe weinig van deze wezens de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw
overleven. Het zijn voornamelijk de kannibalen die standhouden; van anderen wordt
Jan Nederveen Pieterse, Wit over zwart