In Eastern countries, when the beaver finds that it cannot evade the dogs which are following it by its scent, it saves itself by self-mutilation. By some natural natural instinct it knows which part of its body the hunter really wants. The creature castrates itself before the hunter's eyes and throws its testicles down.... If a beaver which has already lost its testicles is hard pressed a second time by the hounds, it rushes to the top of a hillock, cocks up one of its hind-legs and shows the hunter that the organs which he is really after have already been cut off. ^*

What the FUCK is going on in "Eastern countries" that makes them want beaver testicles so badly?! I love how the author doesn't even fucking explain that. He just assumes everyone should know and follows this passage with a couple of quotations from Juvenal and St. Bernard about eunuchs, as if that's what we're really interested in reading, as opposed to what's so damned good about beaver nuts.

^* Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales, trans. by Lewis Thorpe (New York: Penguin, 1978), 176.