Heads

In 1743 in a farm to the north of the parish a lamb was born with two heads. It was rejected by its mother but Elizabeth, the 15-year-old daughter of the farmer, took care of it, coaxing milk into each of its heads. An invisible defect, complementary to the obvious visible mutation, resulted in the closure of one of the windpipes, and consequently the death of one of the heads. Elizabeth frequently visited the nearest village and was of great interest to the local males, unintentionally turning their heads. The lamb, with difficulty, was reared to adulthood, but Elizabeth had quickly lost interest in it now that it no longer had two living heads. In 1744 Elizabeth gave birth to a baby with two heads. An elderly man arrived on a horse and, in the next room, severed both of the heads.