THE GREA T SEA SERPENT. 383 



time of our Henry VI I L, long before the belief in witches 

 and warlocks, fairies and banshees, had died out in our own 

 country, we can hardly throw stones at him on that score. 

 It is a most amusing and interesting history, and gives a 

 wonderful insight of the habits and customs of the northern 

 nations in his day. 



Amongst his illustrations of the sea monsters he describes 

 are the two of which I give facsimiles on the next page. In 

 Fig. 13 a sea serpent is seen writhing in many coils upon 

 the surface of the water, and having in its mouth a sailor, 

 whom it has seized from the deck of a ship. The poor 

 fellow is trying to grasp the ratlins of the shrouds, but is 

 being dragged from his hold and lifted over the bulwarks 

 by the monster. His companions, in terror, are endeavour- 

 ing to escape in various directions. One is climbing aloft 

 by the stay, in* the hope of getting out of reach in that 

 way, whilst two others are hurrying aft to obtain the shelter 

 of a little castle or cabin projecting over the stern. I am 

 strongly of the opinion that this is but the fallacious repre- 

 sentation of an actual occurrence. Read by the light of 

 recent knowledge, these old pictures convey to a practised 

 eye a meaning as clear as that of hieroglyphics to an 

 Egyptologist, and my translation of this is the following. 

 The crew of a ship have witnessed the dreadful sight of a 

 serpent-like form issuing from the sea, rising over the 

 bulwarks of their vessel, seizing one of their messmates 

 from amongst them, and dragging him overboard and 

 under water. Awe-stricken by the mysterious disappear- 

 ance of their comrade, and too frightened and anxious for 

 their own safety to be able, during the short space of time 

 occupied by an affair which all happened in a few seconds 

 to observe accurately their terrible assailant, they naturally 

 conjecture that it must have been a snake. It was pro- 



