Superstition and Sea^Serpents 171 



a row of hairs of two feet in length hanging from the 

 neck, sharp scales of a dark colour, and brilliant flaming 

 eyes. It attacks boats and snatches away the men, 

 By raising itself high out of water, and devours them ; 

 and commonly this does not happen without a terrible 

 event in the kingdom, without a change being at hand, 

 either that the princes will die or will be banished, or 

 that a war will soon break out.* The only criticism 

 of this amazing yarn which the Professor permits 

 himself is — ' We consider its devouring hogs, lambs, 

 and calves, and its appearance on summer nights on 

 land to take its prey, to be a fable. The eating of 

 squids, cuttles, crabs, and lobsters may be a fiction or 

 it may have been truly witnessed, the animal chewing 

 them with its head above water, as seals and sea-lions 

 do {!!). The story of snatching a man away from the 

 ships is evidently confounded with another tale. . . . 

 It of course refers to gigantic calamaries which occa- 

 sionally attack boats and snatch away one of the 

 crew. Its being covered with scales must be fictitious 

 too, for they who saw a Sea-serpent at a short distance 

 are unanimous in stating that it had no scales, but a 

 smooth skin.' A fine example of the gnat and camel 

 parable, surely. 



The list of accounts of the seeing of the Sea-serpent 

 fills nine pages and a half of our author's book, and 

 date from 1555 to 1888. Apparently no yam, how- 

 ever wildly absurd, is excluded or refused rank as 

 evidence, unless it has been exposed as an indubitable 

 fraud. Even then Dr. Oudemans cannot help adopting 

 a regretful tone, as if he only wished that the story 

 was true, or that it had not been discovered to be false, 

 so that he might have the luxury of believing it. But 

 of all the amazing stories collected by the learned 

 Doctor, none attain such a magnitude as the following. 



