IM sure that’s what they wrote down and I’m sure that’s what the person who had it commissioned said it was but the one thing I am more sure of is that this is not a cucumber and nobody who ever saw it has ever thought it is a cucumber.
Imagine yourself being confused and baffled by something, and asking "Really?". The intonation is rising, as is usual in questions. Imagine yourself hearing someone say something you are completely confident is absurdly false or a lie, and you want to suggest to the person that they're wrong and you know the truth, by sarcastically asking "Really?". The intonation is falling, closer to ordinary statements of fact.
OOP is using the full stop at the end of his "questons" to suggest the second, sarcastic intonation.
My wife's been reading this book that references this. As well so many other cases of men assuming genders or disregarding women in science, among other things. It's crazy. "hmm that skeleton has wide hips, but it is also buried with a sword, so it's a man". Female physiology traits in a man is way more plausible, than a woman being buried with a sword ... wtf?!?
Remember that the idiots in the 19th & 20th centuries uncovering all kinds of Egyptian stuff purposefully damaged inscriptions and art because they prominently showed gasp penises!
As we well know all women and men in history that lived together with someone of the same gender were just friends. There are many historical records in which esteemed historians depicted the factual truth of deep friendships. Luckily for the rest of us, those noble seers always knew all context required and bore no prejudices towards anything whatsoever. That is a model cucumber. It even tastes like one.