MONSTERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



739 



sailors, deceived by this treacherous sign, have been known 

 to anchor their ships on the flanks of these sea-monsters 

 and land on their backs. 



267. Cetacean attacking a Ship. Facsimile from the Work of Olaus Magnus: 

 De Genlibus Septentrionalibus, 1555. 



In those times of credulity, when the life of the sailor was 

 so full of anxiety and terror, such facts were held to be 

 quite authentic. Thus we see Olaus Magnus represent in 

 one of his works a company of fishermen warming them- 

 selves and cooking their food at a glowing; fire lig-hted on 

 the body of one of these fantastic creatures ; but the author 

 has sketched a cetacean, not a cuttle-fish. Gesner, a zoolo- 

 gist of the Renaissance, seems to believe such fables, for 

 he reproduces the figure given by the learned Sw T ede. 



In the wide field of absurdities Denis de Montfort dis- 

 plays credulity almost surpassing belief. He asserts, with a 

 strong sense of conviction, that amid these great seas there 

 are gigantic cuttle-fish, which, by means of their immense 

 arms thickly covered with suckers, encircle ships and wreck 

 them by plunging them into the abyss. 



