512 
THE OCEAN WORLD. 
“ Tho suddenness of the jerk with which the poor devil is brought 
up often turns him quite over. No sailor, however, thinks of hauling 
a shark on hoard merely by the rope fastened to the hook. To pre- 
vent the line breaking, the hook snapping, or the jaw being torn 
away, a running 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 he 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, hut not 
until it has been made tender and eatable by long preservation. In 
many parts of tho Mediterranean coast small sharks are taken from 
their mother’s belly and eaten. The under parts of adult sharks is 
also eaten by the fishermen after the bad parts have been removed- 
In Norway and Iceland this part of the animal is dried in the air 
during the most part of the twelve months. The Icelanders also use 
the fat of the animal ; the liver of one of them, according to Pontoppi" 
dan, will furnish two tons and a half of oil. 
We have thus, with tho care it deserves, painted the portrait of the 
shark. The original is by no means beautiful ; but, frightful as h 
may be, our description would he 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 stark : they call it their joujou, and consider it s 
stomach the road to heaven. Three or four times in the year they 
celebrate the festival of tho shark, which is done in this wise : — 
They all move 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 b lS 
sacred appetite. But this is nothing : an infant is every year sacri- 
ficed to the monster, which has been reared for the purpose from if® 
birth ; it is feted and nourished for the sacrifice from its birth 1° 
the age of ten. On the day of the fete it is bound to a post on a 
sandy point at low water ; as the tide rises, the child may utter cries of 
