HATRED OF THE SHARK. 307 



will to the helpe of them within the ship, by plucking up 

 his legges and gathering his body nimbly togither, round 

 as it were in a ball. Well may some from shipboard 

 proke at the dogges aforesaid with forkes ; others thrust 

 at them with stout speares and such-like weapons, and all 

 never the neare ; so crafty and cautious is this foule 

 beast, to get under the very belly of the bark, and so 

 feed upon their comrade in safetie." 



We in England, who rarely see a shark except in a 

 museum, and when it can no longer do us any injury, can 

 hardly estimate the intensity of the hatred with which 

 the monster is pursued by the inhabitants of less secure 

 shores. The Malayans regard the killing of a shark as 

 a noble deed, and the killer as a man who has deserved 

 well of the country ; and even the Italians, who are 

 chiefly acquainted with the samiola, certainly not the 

 most dangerous of the race, pour out upon the Squalidae 

 the full torrents of their wrath. In Mr. Badham's enter- 

 taining pages, we find a graphic and amusing sketch of 

 the scene in the fish-market of Palermo, when, on one 

 occasion, some seamen brought ashore a tope which they 

 had captured in their tunny-nets.* The mangled corpse 

 was surrounded by an excited and admiring throng. The 

 men who had secured the monster, well content with the 

 results of their night's toil, smoked the pipes of peace, 

 and told to all who cared to listen the oft-told tale of the 

 surprising capture. Women, of course, mingled largely in 

 the crowd ; all, with outstretched fingers, pointing at the 

 harmless monster, gesticulating and screaming " Bruto ! " 

 " Scelerato f " " Nerone dei pesci / " with other customary 



* Badliain, "Ancient and Modern Fish-Tattle, 1 ' pp. 422, 423. 



