THE HAIRY WOMAN

        In the XIV and XV century monsters, phenomenon of nature, men and women born deformed, were seen as prodigies, work of Devil or simple fair-ground marvels and so they could be exposed in squares and people must pay to see their “shows” or only to see them. This was the destiny of men and women who were dwarfs or too tall, deformed, siameses or who had other oddities. One of the first person who became “famous” was Barbara Urselin or Van Beck, probably born in Augusta, in Germany, but it is possible that there was 2 or more similar cases. She was the “bearded woman”. Similar cases are rare, but not unequalled and, of course, many others like her passed unnoticed, hidden in their houses in loneliness and shame. She was described, by who knew her or by who had seen her, with a “big beard widespread on all her face, long and flowing”. John Evelyn wrote on his “Diary” on 15 September 1651: I have seen the hairy woman, 20-years old, that I have already seen when she was a child. Born in Augusta in Germany, she also have the eyebrows combed up and on her forehead grow a sort of thick and regular hair like that which grows on every woman’s head. She was well-dressed (…). A long lock of hair grows from her ears, she also have a thick beard and moustaches, with long locks that grow in the middle of the nose, like the dogs of Island. The colour is light brown and her hair are beautiful and thin as flax. She’s married and she told me that she have a child and he’s not hairy, like all her relatives. She was beautiful and she played the harpsichord. Also other person wrote in their diary the meeting with the bearded woman, we think that she was the same person but we aren’t sure. They also said that she had the voice of a little girl even when she was 40. The hair started to grow when she was 7 and since then it grow very quickly. There was many people that travelled for many miles only to see her.

Translated by Roberta "Nemo85"