Shark Devils— and Gods 



151 



Hanging in an archway in the Austrian town of Bregenz is this "Mermaid of Bregenz," 

 whose appearance after being hauled from nearby Lake Constance saved Bregenz from 

 a plethora of perils, according to a thirteenth-century legend. The "mermaid" is 

 actually a shark, but how it turned up in a lakeside town is a 700-year-old mystery. 

 The original mummified shark has been replaced by a stone replica, so that the town's 

 guardian will remain in perpetuity. Courte.=!y, R. B. C. Twidale 



Apparently there is nowhere that a shark— or a tale of a shark— can- 

 not find its wav. 



For centuries, sailors' imaginations, fired bv superstition, terror, and 

 a yen for a good varn, have spun tale after tale about sharks. Some of 

 these tales die hard, so it should be made a matter of record that sharks 

 do not nurse their voung, produce ambergris, or beat whales to death 

 with their tails. Nor, sad to relate, is there anv basis for Mark Twain's 

 great story^ that, by catching in Australia a shark that had swallowed a 

 newspaper in London 10 days before. Cecil Rhodes fortuitously obtained 

 advance information about the wool market and thus began to amass his 

 vast fortune. 



