FISHES. 549 



up often turns him quite over. No sailor, however, thinks of hauling 

 a shark on board merely by the rope fastened to the hook. To 

 prevent the line breaking, the hook snapping, or the jaw being torn 

 away, a running bowline is adopted. This noose is slipped down 

 the rope and passed over the monster's head, and is made to join at 

 the point of junction of the tail with the body ; and now the first 

 part of the fun is held to be completed. The vanquished enemy is 

 easily drawn up over the taffrail, and flung on deck, to the delight of 

 the crew." 



The flesh of the shark is leathery, of bad taste, and difficult to 

 digest. Nevertheless, the negroes of Guinea feed upon it, but not 

 until it has been made tender and eatable by long preservation. In 

 many parts of the Mediterranean coast small sharks are taken from 

 their mother's belly and eaten. The under part of adult sharks is 

 also eaten by the fishermen after the coarser parts have been 

 removed. In Norway and Iceland this part of the animal is dried 

 in the air during most part of the twelve months. The Icelanders 

 also use the fat of the animal ; the liver of one of them, according 

 to Pontoppidan, will furnish a great quantity of oil. 



We have thus, with the care it deserves, painted the portrait of 

 the shark. The original is by no means beautiful ; but, frightful as it 

 may be, our description would be incomplete if we did not add that 

 divine honours have been granted to this monster of the waters. 

 Man worships force; he knows the hand which crushes, the teeth 

 which rend. He respects the master or the king who strikes, and he 

 venerates the shark. The inhabitants of several parts of the African 

 coast worship the shark ; they call it their joujou, and consider its 

 stomach the road to heaven. Three or four times in the year they 

 celebrate the festival of the shark, which is done in this wise : 

 They all row out in their boats to the middle of the river, where 

 they invoke, with the strangest ceremonies, the protection of the 

 great shark. They offer to him poultry and goats, in order to satisfy 

 his sacred appetite. But this is nothing ; an infant is every year 

 sacrificed to the monster, which has been reared for the purpose from 

 its birth ; it is feted and nourished for the sacrifice from its birth to 

 the age of ten. On the day of the fete it is bound to a post on a 

 sandy point at low water ; as the tide rises, the child may utter cries 

 of horror, but they are of no avail, it is abandoned to the waves, and 

 the sharks arrive. The mother is not far off; perhaps she weeps, 

 but she dries her tears, and thinks that her child has entered heaven 

 through this horrible gate. 



Of the family Spinatida there is no better known species than 



