THE CAUSES OF EARTHQUAKES 



ences to this fish in the pictorial art, pottery and carving, 

 literature, and everyday conversation, all of which would 

 be unintelligible if we did not know the story of the earth- 

 quake fish. In other countries the subterranean creature 

 will be a pig, a tortoise, an elephant, or some other animal. 

 The most interesting myths, however, relate to under- 

 ground personages. The forty-five Grecian Titans, who 

 were of gigantic stature and of proportionate strength, 

 were confined in the bowels of the earth. According to 

 the poets, the flames of Etna proceeded from the breath 

 of Enceladus, and when he turned his weary body the 

 whole island of Sicily was shaken to its foundations. 

 Neptune was not only a god of the oceans, rivers, and 

 fountains, but with a blow of his trident he could create 

 earthquakes at pleasure. The worship of Neptune was 

 established in almost every part of the Grecian world. 

 The Livians, in particular, venerated him, and looked 

 upon him as the first and greatest of the gods. The 

 Palici were born in the bowels of the earth, and were 

 worshipped with great ceremonies by the Sicilians. In a 

 superstitious age the altars of the Palici were stained with 

 the blood of human sacrifices. In Roman mythology two 

 very familiar deities are Pluto and Vulcan. These and a 

 host of other deities, the outcome of imagination, excited 

 by displays of seismic and volcanic activity, we meet with 

 every day in picture galleries, in museums, in literature, 

 and in our daily papers. Earthquakes have led to the 

 abolition of oppressive taxation, the abolition of masque- 

 rades, the closing of theatres, and even to the alteration in 

 fashions. A New England paper, of 1727, tells us that 

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