Featured on PDR in the collection Off with Their Heads: Illustrations of Blemmyes (ca. 1175–1724)

Before we “lost our cool”, we “lost our heads”. The latter idiom dates back to the eighteenth century, but the literal phrase from which it stems (read: decapitation) was in use since at least the time of Chaucer. Long before English existed as a language, however, a headless tribe was thought to roam the distant reaches of the world. They were known variously as Blemmyes or Akephaloi, and later discovered again in the New World as Ewaipanoma. It wasn’t that this species lacked a face. The eyes, nose, and mouth were all present on their chest. Where the brain supposedly resided. . . well that’s lost to history.