Hannah turned up this paper, “Human Hand-Walkers: Five Siblings Who Never Stood Up,” about four Kurdish sisters and their brother who manage to get around just fine even though a genetic condition of the cerebellum keeps them from walking upright. Is it me, or is there something — knowing it’s people they’re talking about — vaguely Ballardian in the paper’s choice of words?

When they are at rest the quadrupeds either sit upright or squat on their haunches. . . . The females splay their back legs apart, the male, however, who is the strongest and most active of the five, plants his feet closely together. . . . [T]he females tend to stay close to the house, but the male sometimes wanders for several kilometres. . . . Figure 2 . . . Subject #11 standing semi-erect, while he scans for objects to pick up and put into his pouch. . . .