Monopod

Another neat device is a kind of monopod (if we may coin a word), which is adjusted against the hub of the wheel by means of a Y-top, and has adjustable extension to reach to the ground. This sliding brass foot telescopes and shuts up into a length of only about sixteen inches, making a very effective means of turning the bicycle into a rigid camera stand.

Vnto what end like wiſe ſhould I ſpeak of thoſe blind Andabates that fight without eyes, or of thoſe great eared people the Faneſii, whoſe ears ſhadowed and couered their whole body? or of the Monopods, which in like manner ſhadow their whole body with one foote?

Hence their ſacred Tables, ſome placed before the Images of their Gods in their Temples (as mention’d. Iſai. 65. 11. Ezek. 23. 41) and ſome ſet up for Libations, and other Idolatrous Uſes, in their Houſes: ſome call’d Tripods, with three Feet, ſome Tetrapods, with four; and ſome Monopods with one, in Manner of a Pillar:[…].

The next order of walkers amongst apodous larvæ are those that move by means of fleshy tuberculiform or pediform prominences,—which last resemble the spurious legs of the caterpillars of most Lepidoptera. Some, a kind of monopods, have only one of such prominences, which being always fixed almost under the head, may serve, in some degree, the purpose of an unguiform mandible.

Very many fragments of vases, of various dimensions, were also found: some of them adorned in tiles, and some in circles; a part in intaglio, and a part in relief; all of terra cotta. Three monopods, of a single stone, are still uninjured, and the very ruins, under which they formerly lay for so many ages, have preserved them.

Here the monopod hero, Santa Anna, fights cocks, and waits the moving of the waters in Mexico.

But I do find, as I thought I should, the curious and valuable chapter (De Civitate Dei, Lib. XVI., Cap. 8), in which he discusses the question of Sciapods, Monopods, Monoculi, Androgynæ, and other monsters, and concludes, philosophically enough, that one is not bound to believe that they exist, and if they do exist, it is not proven that they are men.

Indeed, we are much indebted to this straightforward and simpleminded sailor, for his unadorned narrative, which forms such a favourable contrast to the travellers’ tales of later voyagers, who on some small substratum of truth raised such enormous fictions as the monopods, the pigmies and cranes, the acephali, and other prodigies.