THE SCENE: In the mind of the Spanish traveler Abu Hamid, the beavers of medieval Bulgaria imitated human societies in many ways, including enslaving other beavers.
THE TEXT: The beaver is a wonderful animal. It lives in the great rivers and builds homes on land, at the edge of the water. It makes a kind of high platform for itself and to the right another, less high, for its wife and to the left another, for its children. Below there is a place for its slaves. The house has a door which gives on to the river and another, higher up, on to the land. Sometimes, it eats the wood know as khalanj, at other times it eats fish. Some beavers are jealous of other, and make them prisoners.
Those who trade in those lands through the country of Bulghar have no trouble in distinguishing the fur of slave beavers from those of the masters. This is because the slave beaver cuts the wood of the khalanj and other trees with its teeth, and as it gnaws them, they rub its side and its hair fall off right and left. Hence they say, “This pelt is from the servant of the beaver.” The fur of the beaver who owns slaves, on the other hand, is perfect.
– The Travels of Abu Hamid al-Andalusi al-Gharnati, 12th Century AD
