The attempts that have been made to fix upon some actual fact as originating the attribution of tails to Englishmen seem as uncalled for as most of them are fanciful and absurd.[374] They are all based on the hypothesis that the epithet "caudatus", "coué", and "tailard" was first applied for some reason other than the belief in the existence of a tail, and that only subsequently, if, indeed, ever, was it taken literally. But our investigation has proved that there is nothing to warrant this assumption. It has been shown that, on the contrary, the actual monstrosity was accepted as a fact from the outset. Nor does it seem impossible to explain how this came about. Given the insult offered to St. Augustine, about which there is no room for scepticism, it only requires a knowledge of the medieval spirit to account for the sequel. Impressed by the sanctity of the apostle of England and by the greatness, or, indeed, the divinity of his mission, the early biographer looked upon it as inevitable that the sacrilege of those who dishonoured him should draw down upon them the wrath of Heaven. Was not the disrespect of the children who called the Prophet "bald head" visited upon them? The conviction that this should be the case easily led to the assumption that it was. And a very slight effort of imagination sufficed to devise a punishment suited to the offence. It was suggested by the very nature of the impious deed. And what, to the chronicler, seemed the application of an obvious principle--that the transgression should fall back upon the transgressor--was accepted by the credulity of the age. Then there was the animosity of other nations, of France in particular, and of Scotland, her ally. If, at home, the manifestation of divine anger and of saintly power was thought to be limited to the kith and kin of the offenders, such nicety of distinction was ignored abroad. It suited the enemies of England that all Englishmen should be "tailards", and "tailards" they were universally and indiscriminately called. FOOTNOTES: for THE "LONG-TAIL" MYTH [291] Sir James Melville's _Memoirs_, pp. 171-2. [292] Communicated by Professor Wattenbach, of Berlin, to the _Anzeiger für Kunde der Deutschen Vorzeit_, 1874. [293] Anglicus a tergo caudam gerit: est pecus ergo; Cum tibi dicit "Ave", sicut ab hoste cave. [294] La diversité des contrées excitait entre eux des dissensions, des haines et des animosités virulentes, et ils se faisaient impudemment les uns aux autres toutes sortes d'affronts et d'insultes. Ils affirmaient que les Anglais étaient buveurs et coués.--_Jacques de Vitry_, Traduction Guizot, p. 292.