7 



A certain Mr. Beale, we are told, 1 whilst searching for shells among 

 the rocks of the Bonin Islands, unintentionally became on intimate 

 terms with a companion of this description. Looking downwards, 

 the collector beheld a curiously shaped animal crawling towards 

 the surf. It was creeping on its eight legs, which from their soft 

 and flexible nature, bent beneath the weight they had to carry. On 

 seeing the stranger, it appeared much alarmed, and made every effort 

 to escape. To secure the strange fish, Mr. Beale first with his foot 

 pressed upon one of its long arms with his whole weight, but with 

 all the pressure possible could not detain it ; next he tried to detach 

 it from the rock by manual force, but here again the suckers would 

 not yield. Finally a powerful jerk was tried, but was of no avail 

 except to change the creature's fear into excessive rage. For the 

 Cuttle suddenly retracting its suckers and bounding upwards, sprang 

 upon its assailant's elbow, fastened on the bare skin, and tried with 

 its beak to tear the flesh. The writer adds it would be hard to de- 

 scribe the sensation of horror which was felt when the cold slimy 

 tentacles clasped the skin, and when the suckers glued themselves 

 down in a hundred different places. So firmly did the Octopus 

 hold, that not until a sailor, attracted by the cry for help, had with a 

 boatman's knife cut off the clinging tentacles, not until then, could 

 Mr. Beale obtain release from a situation of so much danger. 



If these many-footed beings have their unpleasant aspect, so have 

 they their pleasant. According to ancient authors, the fashionable 

 diner-out of Greece and Borne was often feasted with Cuttle-roasts 

 and Cuttle-hashes. Athenasus, in his " table-talk," thus pleasantly 

 addresses a hungry man who arrived too late for the commencement 

 of a festive banquet. 2 



"The dainty slices of fat, well-seasoned sausages 

 Have all been eaten. The well-roasted Cuttle-fish 

 "Was swallow' d long ago, and nine or ten 

 Casks of rich wine are drained to the very dregs, 

 So if you'd like some fragments of the feast 

 Hasten and enter. Don't, like hungry wolf, 

 Losing this feast, then run about at random." 



1 Beale's Natural History of the Sperm Whale, p. 67, London, 1839. 

 „ 2 The Deipnosophists, Lib. xiv. cap. 17. Yonge's Translation. 



