RELIGION, SUPERSTITION, ETC. 59 



clothes the scripture narrative. The following lines will 

 afford a specimen of the book : 



" What house is this ? here 's neither coal nor candle ; 

 "Where I have nothing but guts of fish to handle. 

 I and my table are both here within, 

 Where day ne'er dawned, where sun did never shine. 

 The like of this on earth man never saw, 

 A living man within a monster's maw ! 

 Buried under mountains which are high and steep, 

 Plunged under waters hundred fathoms deep. 

 Not so was Noah in his house of tree, 

 For through a window he the light did see ; 

 He sailed above the highest waves ; a wonder ! 

 I and my boat are all the waters under ! 

 He and his ark might go and also come ; 

 But I sit still in such a straightened room 

 As is most uncouth ; head and feet together, 

 Among such grease as would a thousand smother, 

 Where I, entombed, in melancholy sink, 

 Choked, suffocate with excremental stink." 



The legend of the fish and the ring, is very common, 

 and supposed to be of great antiquity. The classical tale 

 of Poly crates, related by Herodotus, is perhaps the oldest 

 version of it. The Koran of Mahomet mentions the 

 ring. " Solomon intrusted his signet with one of his 

 concubines, which the devil obtained from her, and sat on 

 the throne in Solomon's shape. After forty days the 

 devil departed, and threw the ring into the sea. The 

 signet was swallowed by a fish, which, being caught and 



