Hmmm, not entirely sure about this one...
I heard this story on a trip to Brazil a few years ago. Not sure if it's true or just folklore, but it's on topic, so thought I'd post it.

It takes place among a small, remote tribe who lived in the depths of the Amazon, and begins as the 19th Century turned into the 20th.

We pick up the tale just after the birth of a boy. He'd appeared normal at first; the requisite number of digits, limbs, eyes, etc... and had been healthy in his early months. However, he began to suffer with poor health. The Shaman did what he could, but the child continued to descend into an ever worsened state and it was feared he wouldn't live to see out his first year.

At around 9 or 10 months his health hit rock bottom. He was desperately underweight, and his skin was sallow and hung loosely from his bones. And here the strangest development occurred: a growth started to appear at the base of his spine. Not just an extension of the coccyx, but an actual tail began to protrude from just above his behind.

Fortunately he survived beyond his first year and his strength grew. The Shaman was particularly adept at utilising the various Amazonian plants at his disposal and created several potions and unguents that gave him as close to a normal life as was possible.

Throughout adolescence his tail grew almost to the ground, and he was really quite proud of it. It wasn't so good for the tribe, however, as a Portuguese explorer discovered them and became fascinated by the be-tailed one. He tried to take the child back to Portugal with him, but the tribe were adamant he would stay in the village and, after much wrangling and a comically botched kidnap attempt, the explorer was chased from the village, never to return.

Eventually he found a wife among the tribe and produced his own offspring. It was assumed that the tail must have been a fluke; some hideous freak of nature that couldn't possibly be passed onto the next generation, so there was no real concern among the tribal elders... unfortunately they were wrong.

The first child was a girl and she was as healthy a baby as the tribe had ever seen. However, following the birth of the girl, twin boys were born, sadly only days after their father had lost his final battle against the sickness that had been with him his entire life. Sickly, weak and unhealthy; their decline was greeted with abject fear and dread. Lo and behold, their story followed a similar path to that of their father, including the familiar protrusion that had singled him out 18 years earlier. It was decided that they should never be allowed to reproduce, and so were castrated at a very young age.

It was then agreed among the elders that their tails should be removed so as not to attract any more attention from outsiders. Surgical tools were non-existent and the operation was crudely carried out with whatever was available; essentially wood working tools.

The shaman created an extremely effective anaesthetic that allowed the tails to be removed relatively painlessly using only a rudimentary saw. This proved only to be a partial success, as the stumps that remained caused considerable pain to the twins, so it was decided that they would have to be flattened off completely. The tribe were expert wood-workers and they had fashioned a large range of tools, including the planes that were used to complete the removal of the tails.

And so it was, with the tails of the eunuchs planed that the tribe were, after a long and difficult 20 years, finally returned to normality.
( Moey, Thu 10 Jul 2008, 14:51, Reply)