SOURCE: The Princess and Curdie (1882) by George MacDonald

DESCRIPTION: "...Up the rope again he went, and found one which had been afraid to trust himself to the bridge, and no wonder! for he had neither legs nor head nor arms nor tail: he was just a round
thing, about a foot in diameter, with a nose and mouth and eyes on one side of the ball.  He had made his journey by rolling as swiftly as the fleetest of them could run.  The back of the legserpent not being flat, he could not quite trust himself to roll straight and not drop into the gulf...." (The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald)

NOTES: Ballbody is one of the 49 Uglies found living in the dark forest on the way to the king's castle. He is said to roll around like a spent cannonball. He is not allowed to help clean the castle since he just spreads the dirt.

HISTORY: Macdonald, ever looking for a chance to sermonize, tells small bits of the monster's history to satirize certain individuals, in this case, ("...but he could only conjecture that he was a gluttonous alderman whom nature had treated homeopathically.) civic officials.