THE BASIS OF ANIMAL MYTH 303 



that the appearance of a tiger should be unknown 

 to any educated person in the sixteenth century. 

 Yet in a fine illustrated natural history, published 

 in the middle of that century, it is clear from the 

 engravings that the artist did not know what a 

 tiger was. He carefully read the Latin description 

 of its appearance and habits, and was struck by a 

 remark that it was a creature which leapt upon its 

 victims from behind rocks. So he engraved a block 

 representing animals of the size of large ferrets, 

 with cats' heads, jumping through the air like a 

 shoal of flying fish. Basilisks, cockatrices, and 

 dragons, which were treated of at equal length 

 with fleas, hedgehogs, and hawks, presented no 

 difficulties to the artist. Their form and colour 

 were as well established as that of the unicorn 

 which supports the Royal Arms, and drawing and 

 letterpress agreed. The danger from gigantic squids 

 was well known and naturally exaggerated by the 

 early voyagers. Here the illustrators were again at 

 fault. In a very old edition of Olaus Magnus, 

 the squid is represented as an enormous lobster, 

 picking the crew out of a ship with its claws. The 

 artist thus perverts a story which was based on 

 truth into a myth, by substituting a species which 

 does not grow to a gigantic size, for the octopus, 

 which does. One of the most persistent of the 



