Thread: Useless facts/knowledge

Originally Posted by Cangooner

The wonderful 12th-century Aberdeen Bestiary describes beavers thus:

Of the beaver There is an animal called the beaver, which is extremely gentle; its testicles are are highly suitable for medicine. Physiologus says of it that, when it knows that a hunter is pursuing it, it bites off its testicles and throws them in the hunter's face and, taking flight, escapes. But if, once again, another hunter is in pursuit, the beaver rears up and displays its sexual organs. When the hunter sees that it lacks testicles, he leaves it alone. Thus every man who heeds God's commandment and wishes to live chastely should cut off all his vices and shameless acts, and cast them from him into the face of the devil. Then the devil, seeing that the man has nothing belonging to him, retires in disorder. That man, however, lives in God and is not taken by the devil, who says: 'I will pursue, I will overtake them...'(Exodus, 15:9) The name castor comes from castrando, 'castrate'.

"The beaver was probably the last thing God ever invented, because after He made it, He just said 'It don't get no better 'n that.' (Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you, God is a hillbilly.)" From Deep Thought by Jack Handy