Uploaded April 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
When medieval people discovered cotton they were so shook the only explanation was it must be a sheep that grows from a stalk in the ground đ
Alt text: Our colleague shows a book from our collection featuring several images of the Lamb of Tartary, a creature people in medieval times believed was a lamb hanging on top of a plant stalk.
We see the lamb in mid-air as it is suspended by a stem reaching from the earth to its navel. Itâs just chewing away on the grass as if this is all normal.
Instead of horns on its head are leaf-like tendrils.
While explaining the story, including a timeline starting in the 1200s, we see a woodcut of a plant with four buds, however rather surreally instead of flowers emerging from them instead are small lambs.
At the end, the little lamb bobs about on its stalk, eating all the food around it. The screen goes black. The lamb perishes leaving only the cotton behind.
When medieval people discovered cotton they were so shook the only explanation was it must be a sheep that grows from a stalk in the ground đ
Alt text: Our colleague shows a book from our collection featuring several images of the Lamb of Tartary, a creature people in medieval times believed was a lamb hanging on top of a plant stalk.
We see the lamb in mid-air as it is suspended by a stem reaching from the earth to its navel. Itâs just chewing away on the grass as if this is all normal.
Instead of horns on its head are leaf-like tendrils.
While explaining the story, including a timeline starting in the 1200s, we see a woodcut of a plant with four buds, however rather surreally instead of flowers emerging from them instead are small lambs.
At the end, the little lamb bobs about on its stalk, eating all the food around it. The screen goes black. The lamb perishes leaving only the cotton behind.
