496 HISTORY OF 



glutton's hunger excites him ; he darts at the bait, and swallows it, 

 hook and all. Sometimes, however, he does not so entirely gorge 

 the whole, but that he once more gets free ; yet even then, though 

 wounded and bleeding with the hook, he will again pursue the 

 bait until he is taken. When he finds the hook lodged in his 

 maw, bis utmost efforts are then excited, but in vain, to get 

 free ; be tries with his teeth to cut the chain ; he pulls with all 

 his force to break the line ; he almost seems to turn his stomach 

 inside out, to disgorge the hook : in this manner he continues 

 bis formidable though fruitless efforts ; till, quite spent, he suf- 

 fers his head to be drawn above water, and the sailors, confining 

 bis tail by a noose, in this manner draw him on ship-board, and 

 despatch him. This is done by beating him on the head till 

 he dies ; yet even that is not effected without difficulty and dan- 

 ger; the enormous creature, terrible even in the agonies of 

 death, still struggles with his destroyers ; nor is there an ani- 

 mal in the world that is harder to be killed. Even when cut 

 in pieces, the muscles still preserve their motion, and vibrate 

 for some minutes after being separated from the body. An- 

 other method of taking them, is by striking a barbed instru- 

 ment, called a fizgig, into his body, as he brushes along by the 

 side of the ship. As soon as he is taken up, to prevent his 

 flouncing, they cut off the tail with an axe, with the utmost 

 expedition. 



This is the manner in which Europeans destroy the shark ; 

 but some of the Negroes along the African coast, take a bolder 

 and more dangerous method to combat their terrible enemy. 

 Armed with nothing more than a knife, the Negro plunges into 

 the water, where he sees the shark watching for his prey, and 

 boldly swims forward to meet him : though the great animal does 

 not come to provoke the combat, he does not avoid it, and suffers 

 the man to approach him ; but just as he turns upon his side to 

 seize the aggressor, the Negro watches the opportunity, plunges 

 his knife into the fish's belly, and pursues his blows with such 

 success, that he lays the ravenous tyrant dead at the bottom : he 

 soon however returns, fixes the fish's head in a noose, and drags 

 him to shore, where he makes a noble feast for the adjacent 

 villages. 



Nor is man alone the only enemy this fish has to fear : the 

 Kemora, or Sucking-fish, is probably a still greater, and follows 



