The following strange and almost incredible account is given by Lindsay, of Pitscottie:--"About this time (the beginning of the sixteenth century) there was a great marvel seen in Scotland. A bairn was born, reckoned to be a man-child, but from the waist up was two fair persons, with all members pertayning to two bodies; to wit, two heads, well-eyed, well-eared, and well-handed. The two bodies, the one's back was fast to the other's, but from the waist down they were but one personage; and it could not be known by the ingene of men from which of the bodies the legs, &c., proceeded. Notwithstanding the King's Majesty caused great care and diligence on the up-bringing of both bodies; caused nourish them, and learn them to sing and play on instruments of music. Who within short time became very ingenious and cunning in the art of music, whereby they could play and sing two parts, the one the treble, and the other the tenor, which was very dulce and melodious to hear; the common people (who treated them also) wondered that they could speak diverse and sundry languages, that is to say, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, English, and Irish. Their two bodies long continued to the age of twenty-eight years, and the one continued long before the other, which was dolorous and heavy to the other; for which, when many required of the other to be merry, he answered, "How can I be merry which have my true marrow as a dead carrion about my back, which was wont to sing and play with me: when I was sad he would give me comfort, and I would do the like to him. But now I have nothing but dolour of the having so heavy a burthen, dead, cold, and unsavoury, on my back, which taketh all earthly pleasure from me in this present life; therefore I pray to God Allmighty to deliver me out of this present life, that we may be laid and dissolved in the earth, wherefrom we came, &c." Buchanan, who relates the same strange tale, avers that he received it from "many honest and credible persons, who saw the prodigy with their own eyes." He adds that the two bodies discovered different tastes and appetites; that they would frequently disagree and quarrel, and sometimes would consult each other, and concert measures for the good of both; that when any hurt was done to the lower parts, each upper body felt pain; but that when the injury was above the junction, then one body only was affected. This monster, he writes, lived twenty-eight years, but died wretchedly; one part expiring some days before the other, which, half-putrified, pined away by degrees. THE KING OF KIPPEN. The following anecdote is valuable, inasmuch as it gives us an idea of the manners which a King of Scotland could practice without offence to his subjects:--