330 



KRAKEN KREMLIN. 



ilit- reverend Donald Maclean, of Small Isles, and 

 attested by him in a letter to the Wernerian Natural 

 History Society of Edinburgh, though not quite so 

 large as Uie Norwegian kraken, certainly tends to 

 confirm a belief that, with due allowance for exag- 

 geration, monsters of a larger size than philosophy has 

 dreamed of, really do exist in the northern seas, or, 

 in the well-expressed phrase of doctor Barclay, in 

 his paper relating to this animal, that there aie 

 " grounds sufficient to awaken the curiosity of natu- 

 ralists, who, it were to be wished, were always men 

 of accurate discrimination and sound judgment, 

 not prone to indulge in a passion for the marvellous, 

 nor apt to be infected with the silly conceit, that their 

 knowledge of nature is already so complete, that little 

 i if importance remains to be discovered." (Trans- 

 actions of fV. N. H. S., 430.) Mr Maclean's account 

 i- not a little curious. " According to my best recol- 

 lection," says he, " I saw it in June, 1808, not on the 

 coast of Eigg, but on that of Coll. Rowing along that 

 coast, I observed, at about the distance of half a mile, 

 an object to the windward, which gradually excited 

 astonishment. At first view, it appeared like a 

 small-rock. Knowing there was no rock in that situa. 

 tion, I fixed my eyes on it close. Then I saw it 

 elevated considerably above the level of the sea, and, 

 after a slow movement, distinctly perceived one of 

 its eyes. Alarmed at the unusual appearance and 

 magnitude of the animal, I steered so as to be at no 

 great distance from the shore. When nearly in a 

 line betwixt it and the shore, the monster, directing 

 its head, which still continued above water, towards 

 us, plunged violently under water. Certain that he 

 was in chase of us, we plied hard to get ashore. Just 

 as we leaped out on a rock, taking a station as high 

 as we conveniently could, we saw it coming rapidly 

 under water towards the stern of our boat. When 

 within a few yards of the boat, finding the water 

 shallow, it raised its monster-head above water, and, 

 by a winding course, got, with apparent difficulty, 

 clear of the creek where our boat lay, and where the 

 monster seemed in danger of being embayed. It 

 continued to move off with its head above water, and 

 with the wind, for about half a mile, before we lost 

 sight of it. Its head was rather broad, of a form 

 somewhat oval ; its neck somewhat smaller ; its 

 shoulders if I can so term them considerably 

 broader ; and thence it tapered towards the tail, which 

 last it kept pretty low in the water, so that a view oi 

 it could not be taken so distinctly as I wished. It 

 had no fin, that I could perceive, and seemed to me 

 to move progressively by undulations up and down. 

 Its length I believed to be from seventy to eighty 

 feet. When nearest to me, it did not raise its head 

 wholly above water, so that, the neck being under 

 water, I could perceive no shining filaments thereon, 

 if it had any. Its progressive motion under water I 

 took to be rapid, from the shortness of time it took 

 to come up to the boat. When the head was above 

 water, its motion was not near so quick; and when 

 the head was most elevated, it appeared evidently to 

 take a view of distant objects. About the time I saw 

 it, it was seen about the island of Canna. The crews 

 of thirteen fishing boats, I am told, were so much 

 ler.ified at its appearance, that they, in a body, flee 

 from it to the nearest creek for safety. On the pas- 

 sage from Rum to Canna, the crew of one boat saw il 

 coming towards them with the wind, and its heac 

 above water. One of the crew pronounced its heac 

 s large as a little boat, and each of its eyes as large 

 as a plate. The men were much terrified, but the 

 monster offered them no molestation." (Id. 442). 

 The appearance described by Mr Maclean calls to 

 mind the sea-serpents which have been so often re- 

 ported, of late years, as seen on the coast of New 



England. Whatever may be the animal which lias 

 Siven rise to these stories, the kraken described by 

 Pontoppidan can hardly be supposed to be a real ex. 

 istence. The story probably grew out of the appear- 

 ance of islands which have risen above the surface of 

 the sea, and become again submerged, or of rocks on- 

 ly visible at particular seasons, or of floating islands, 

 &c. The young kraken which he describes was pro- 

 bably some large sea-monster, whose appearance 

 liad become much exaggerated in the course of nar- 

 ration. 



KRANACH, LUCAS. His proper name was Sun- 

 der or Siinder, but he was called Kranach, from the 

 place where he was born (1472), in the bishopric ot 

 Bamberg. He went to Coburg, after having learned 

 a little of the art of painting from his father, who 

 was a form-cutter and card painter. The elector 

 Frederic the Wise admitted him to his court. He 

 accompanied him on his journey to Palestine, in 1493. 

 In 1504, he was appointed painter to the elector and 

 his brother, duke John Frederic, was made a noble, 

 and, in 1537, burgomaster of Wittemberg, accom- 

 panied the elector John Frederic in his captivity to 

 Inspruck, returned with him, and died in 1553, at 

 Weimar. He painted much, and the quid pro quo 

 of the stone-cutter, who put on his tomb-stone pictor 

 celerrimus (the quickest painter), instead of pictor 

 celeberrimus (the most famous), was not inappropriate. 

 His son, of the same name, who was also burgomas- 

 ter at Weimar, where he died in 1586, may have 

 painted many of the pieces ascribed to Kranach. 

 We are most indebted to Kranach for his portraits of 

 Luther, Melanchthon, and other persons, famous at 

 the time of the reformation. His historical paintings 

 always seemed to us dull histories indeed, and his 

 numerous representations of Adam and Eve are little 

 better than libels on the work of creation. 



KRASICKI, IGNATIUS, count of Sietzen, archbish- 

 op of Gnesna, a poet and author, was born at Du- 

 biecko, February 3, 1735. When the partition of 

 Poland, in 1772, obliged him to give up his office in 

 the senate of the republic, he turned his attention to 

 science. He excelled in describing the ridiculous in 

 the national customs of his country. His conversation 

 was agreeable and witty. Frederic the Great once 

 said to him, " I hope, Mr Archbishop, you will carry 

 me under your episcopal cloak into Paradise.'' " No, 

 sire," answered Krasicki, "your majesty has cut it so 

 short, that it will not serve for smuggling." Among 

 the works of this poet are his mock-heroic poem La 

 Mycheide, or La Souriade, in ten cantos, translated 

 into French, the subject of which is from the ancient 

 chronicle of bishop Kadlubek, which describes how 

 mice and rats ate up king Popiel ; also his War of 

 the Monks (La Monomachie), in six cantos, perhaps 

 his masterpiece. Frederic the Great is said to have 

 induced him to write it, when he lodged him in the 

 room in Sans Souci, where Voltaire had lived, with 

 the intimation that it would doubtless inspire him 

 with poetical ideas. His Antimonomachie, also in 

 six cantos, has less merit. Several of his fables are 

 classic ; not so his satires. The War of Choczim, in 

 twelve cantos, describing the victory of Choczkiewi 

 over Sultan Osinan, under the reign of Sigismund, 

 has too much of an historical character. His prose 

 works are full of spirit. The writings of Krasicki 

 are classical among the Poles. He died at Berlin, 

 March 14, 1801. Dmachowski collected most of his 

 works, and published them at Warsaw, 1803 et seq., 

 in ten volumes. 



KREML, in the Tartar languages, signifies & for- 

 tress. Hence the name of Kremlin. 



KREMLIN ; part of Moscow, in the centre of the 

 city, containing only the royal edifices and churches, 

 particularly the residence of the emperor. It is sur- 



