Broca and others claim that the sacrum and the coccyx represent the normal tail of man, but examples are not infrequent in which there has been a fleshy or bony tail appended to the coccygeal region.

Traditions of tailed men are old and widespread, and tailed races were supposed to reside in almost every country.

There was at one time an ancient belief that all Cornishmen had tails, and certain men of Kent were said to have been afflicted with tails in retribution for their insults to Thomas a Becket.

Struys, a Dutch traveler in Formosa in the seventeenth century, describes a wild man caught and tied for execution who had a tail more than a foot long, which was covered with red hair like that of a cow.
The Niam Niams of Central Africa are reported to have tails smooth and hairy and from two to ten inches long.

Hubsch of Constantinople remarks that both men and women of this tribe have tails.