FISHES. 549 
up often turns him quite over. No sailor, however, thinks of hauling 
a shark on board merely by the rope fastened to the hook. To 
prevent the line breaking, the hook snapping, or the jaw being torn 
away, arunning bowline is adopted. This noose is slipped down 
the rope and passed over the monster’s head, and is made to join at 
the point of junction of the tail with the body; and now the first 
part of the fun is held to be completed. The vanquished enemy is 
easily drawn up over the taffrail, and flung on deck, to the delight of 
the crew.” 
The flesh of the shark is leathery, of bad taste, and difficult to 
digest. Nevertheless, the negroes of Guinea feed upon it, but not 
until it has been made tender and eatable by long preservation. In 
many parts of the Mediterranean coast small sharks are taken from 
their mother’s belly and eaten. The under part of adult sharks is 
also eaten by the fishermen after the coarser parts have been 
removed. In Norway and Iceland this part of the animal is dried 
in the air during most part of the twelve months. The Icelanders 
also use the fat of the animal; the liver of one of them, according 
to Pontoppidan, will furnish a great quantity of oil. 
We have thus, with the care it deserves, painted the portrait of 
the shark. The original is by no means beautiful ; but, frightful as it 
may be, our description would be incomplete if we did not add that 
divine honours have been granted to this monster of the waters. 
Man worships force; he knows the hand which crushes, the teeth 
which rend. He respects the master or the king who strikes, and he 
venerates the shark. The inhabitants of several parts of the African 
coast worship the shark; they call it their youjou, and consider its 
stomach the road to heaven. Three or four times in the year they 
celebrate the festival of the shark, which is done in this wise :— 
They all row out in their boats to the middle of the river, where 
they invoke, with the strangest ceremonies, the protection of the 
great shark. They offer to him poultry and goats, in order to satisfy 
his sacred appetite. But this is nothing; an infant is every year 
sacrificed to the monster, which has been reared for.the purpose from 
its birth ; it is féted and nourished for the sacrifice from its birth to 
the age of ten. On the day of the féte it is bound to a post ona 
sandy point at low water; as the tide rises, the child may utter cries 
of horror, but they are of no avail, it is abandoned to the waves, and 
the sharks arrive. The mother is not far off; perhaps she weeps, 
but she dries her tears, and thinks that her child has entered heaven 
through this horrible gate. 
Of the family Spenacide there is no better known species than 
