In the desert of the land of Egypt a holy hermit, once upon a time, met a monstrously shaped beast; for it had the shape of a man from the navel upwards and from their downward the form of a goat, with two horns standing up on its head. The hermit asked him, in God's name, what he was; and the beast answered and said, "I am a mortal creature as God made me, and in the desert I dwell, and I go about seeking my suffrance. Therefore I pray you, hermit, to pray to God for me, that He who came from Heaven to earth for the salvation of man's soul, and who was born of maiden, and suffered bitter Passion, through whom we all live and have our being, may have mercy upon me." The head of that beast, with the horns, is still kept in Alexandria as a marvelous thing.
From The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
Penguin Edition
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