(p. 2395), as having said concerning the present existence of the
_Enaliosaurian_ type that "it would be in precise conformity with
analogy that such an animal should exist in the American Seas, as he had
found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of the Old World were
represented by living types in the New."
On this point, Mr. Newman records, in the _Zoologist_ (p. 2356), an
actual testimony which he considers, "in all respects, the most
interesting natural-history fact of the present century." He writes:
"Captain the Hon. George Hope states that when in H.M.S. 'Fly,' in
the Gulf of California, the sea being perfectly calm and
transparent, he saw at the bottom a large marine animal with the
head and general figure of the alligator, except that the neck was
much longer, and that instead of legs the creature had four large
flappers, somewhat like those of turtles, the anterior pair being
larger than the posterior; the creature was distinctly visible, and
all its movements could be observed with ease; it appeared to be
pursuing its prey at the bottom of the sea; its movements were
somewhat serpentine, and an appearance of annulations, or ring-like
divisions of the body, was distinctly perceptible. Captain Hope
made this relation in company, and as a matter of conversation.
When I heard it from the gentleman to whom it was narrated, I
enquired whether Captain Hope was acquainted with those remarkable
fossil animals _Ichthyosauri_ and _Plesiosauri_, the supposed forms
of which so nearly correspond with what he describes as having seen
alive, and I cannot find that he had heard of them; the alligator
being the only animal he mentioned as bearing a partial similarity
to the creature in question."
Unfortunately, the estimated dimensions of this creature are not given.
That negative evidence alone is an unsafe basis for argument against the
existence of unknown animals, the following illustrations will show:
During the deep-sea dredgings of H.M.S. _Lightning_, _Porcupine_, and
_Challenger_, many new species of mollusca, and others which had been
supposed to have been extinct ever since the chalk epoch, were brought
to light; and by the deep-sea trawlings of the last-mentioned ship,
there have been brought up from great depths fishes of unknown species,
and which could not exist near the surface, owing to the distension and
rupture of their air-bladder when removed from the pressure of deep
water.
Mr. Gosse mentions that the ship in which he made the voyage to Jamaica
was surrounded in the North Atlantic, for seventeen continuous hours by
a troop of whales of large size of an undescribed species, which on no
other occasion has fallen under scientific observation. Unique specimens
of other cetaceans are also recorded.
We have evidence, to which attention has been directed by Mr. A. D.
Bartlett, that, "even on land there exists at least one of the largest
mammals, probably in thousands, of which only one individual has been
brought to notice, namely, the hairy-eared, two horned rhinoceros (_R.
lasiotis_), now in the Zoological Gardens, London. It was captured in
1868, at Chittagong, in India, where for years collectors and
naturalists have worked and published lists of the animals met with, and
yet no knowledge of this great beast was ever before obtained, nor is
there any portion of one in any museum. It remains unique."
I arrive, then, at the following conclusions: 1st. That, without
straining resemblances, or casting a doubt upon narratives not proved to
be erroneous, the various appearances of the supposed "Great
Sea-serpent" may now be nearly all accounted for by the forms and habits
of known animals; especially if we admit, as proposed by Dr. Andrew
Wilson, that some of them, including the marine snakes, may, like the
cuttles, attain to an extraordinary size.
2nd. That to assume that naturalists have perfect cognizance of every
existing marine animal of large size, would be quite unwarrantable. It
appears to me more than probable that many marine animals, unknown to
science, and some of them of gigantic size, may have their ordinary
habitat in the great depths of the sea, and only occasionally come to
the surface; and I think it not impossible that amongst them may be
marine snakes of greater dimensions than we are aware of, and even a
creature having close affinities with the old sea-reptiles whose fossil
skeletons tell of their magnitude and abundance in past ages.
It is most desirable that every supposed appearance of the "Great
Sea-serpent" shall be faithfully noted and described; and I hope that no
truthful observer will be deterred from reporting such an occurrence by
fear of the disbelief of naturalists, or the ridicule of witlings.
FINIS.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
[Illustration: A MERMAID.
_From a Picture by Otto Sinding._]
_International Fisheries Exhibition_ LONDON, 1883
SEA FABLES EXPLAINED
BY
HENRY LEE, F.L.S., F.G.S., F.Z.S.
SOMETIME NATURALIST OF THE BRIGHTON AQUARIUM
AND
AUTHOR OF 'THE OCTOPUS, OR THE DEVIL-FISH OF FICTION AND FACT;'
'SEA MONSTERS UNMASKED,' ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION
AND 13 CHARING CROSS, S.W.
1883
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.
PREFACE.
The little book 'Sea Monsters Unmasked,' recently issued as one of the
Handbooks in connection with the Great International Fisheries
Exhibition has met with so favourable a reception, that I have been
honoured by the request to continue the subject, and to treat also of
some of the Fables of the Sea, which once were universally believed, and
even now are not utterly extinct.
The topic is not here exhausted. Other sea fables and fallacies might be
mentioned and explained; but the amount of letter-press, and the number
of illustrations that can be printed without loss for the small sum of
one shilling--the price at which these Handbooks are uniformly
published--is necessarily limited. I have, therefore, thought it better
to endeavour to make each chapter as complete as possible than to crowd
into the space allotted to me a greater variety of subjects less fully
and carefully discussed.
I have the pleasure of acknowledging the kind assistance I have again
received in the matter of illustrations. I gratefully appreciate Mr.
Murray's permission to use the woodcut of Hercules slaying the Hydra,
taken from Smith's 'Classical Dictionary,' and those of the golden
ornaments found by Dr. Schliemann at Mycenae, and figured in the very
interesting book in which his excavations there are described. I have
also to thank the proprietors of the _Illustrated London News_, the
_Leisure Hour_, and _Land and Water_, for the use of illustrations
especially mentioned in the text.
HENRY LEE.
SAVAGE CLUB;
_Sept. 4th, 1883_.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE MERMAID 1
THE LERNEAN HYDRA 48
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS 59
THE "SPOUTING" OF WHALES 62
THE "SAILING" OF THE NAUTILUS 76
BARNACLE GEESE--GOOSE BARNACLES 98
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
FIG. PAGE
A MERMAID. _From a picture by Otto Sinding_ _Frontispiece_
1. NOAH, HIS WIFE AND THREE SONS, AS FISH-TAILED DEITIES. 2
_From a gem in the Florentine Gallery. After Calmet_
2. HEA, OR NOAH, THE GOD OF THE FLOOD. _Khorsabad_ 3
3. DAGON. _From a bas-relief. Nimroud_ 4
4. DAGON: HALF MAN, HALF FISH. _From Lamy's 'Apparatus 5
Biblicus'_
5. DAGON. _From an agate signet. Nineveh_ "
6. FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU. _After Calmet and Maurice_ 6
7. ATERGATIS, THE GODDESS OF THE SYRIANS. _From a 8
Phoenician Coin_
8. VENUS RISING FROM THE SEA, SUPPORTED BY TRITONS. _After 9
Calmet_
9. VENUS DRAWN IN HER CHARIOT BY TRITONS. _From two 10
Corinthian Coins_
10. DITTO. 11
11. SEAL, DRAWN AS A FISH. _From the Catacombs at Rome_ "
12. MERMAID AND FISHES OF AMBOYNA. _After Valentyn_ 17
13. A JAPANESE ARTIFICIAL MERMAID 27
14. AN ARTIFICIAL MERMAID. _Probably Japanese_ 28
15. PORTRAIT OF A MERMAID SAID TO HAVE BEEN CAPTURED IN JAPAN 29
16. THE DUGONG. _From Sir J. Emerson Tennent's 'Ceylon'_ 43
17. THE MANATEE 45
18. FIGURE OF A CALAMARY, FROM THE TEMPLE OF BAYR-EL-BAHREE 50
19. FIGURE OF AN OCTOPUS ON A GOLD ORNAMENT FOUND BY DR. 51
SCHLIEMANN AT MYCENAE
20. DITTO. 52
21. DITTO. 53
22. DITTO. "
23. HERCULES SLAYING THE LERNEAN HYDRA 57
24. THE PHYSETER INUNDATING A SHIP. _After Olaus Magnus_ 64
25. A WHALE POURING WATER INTO A SHIP FROM ITS BLOW-HOLE. 64
_After Olaus Magnus_
26. SPERM WHALES "SPOUTING" 65
27. THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta argo_) SAILING 76
28. DITTO. RETRACTED WITHIN ITS SHELL 81
29. DITTO. CRAWLING 86
30. DITTO. SWIMMING 87
31. SHELL OF THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta argo_) 88
32. SHELL OF THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus pompilius_) 89
33. THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus Pompilius_) AND SECTION OF 90
ITS SHELL
34. THE GOOSE-TREE. _From Gerard's 'Herball'_ 104
35. DITTO. _Fac-simile from Aldrovandus_ 110
36. DEVELOPMENT OF BARNACLES INTO GEESE. _Fac-simile from 111
Aldrovandus_
37. SECTION OF A SESSILE BARNACLE. _Balanus tintinnabulum_ 113
38. PEDUNCULATED BARNACLE. _Lepas anatifera_ 115
39. A SHIP'S FIGURE-HEAD PARTLY COVERED WITH BARNACLES 116
40. WHALE BARNACLE. _Coronula diadema_ 117
41. A YOUNG BARNACLE. _Larva of Chthamalus stellatus_ 118
SEA FABLES EXPLAINED.
THE MERMAID.
Next to the pleasure which the earnest zoologist derives from study of
the habits and structure of living animals, and his intelligent
appreciation of their perfect adaptation to their modes of life, and the
circumstances in which they are placed, is the interest he feels in
eliminating fiction from truth, whilst comparing the fancies of the past
with the facts of the present. As his knowledge increases, he learns
that the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called "fabulous
creatures" are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and
that there is hardly one of the monsters of old which has not its
prototype in Nature at the present day. The idea of the Lernean Hydra,
whose heads grew again when cut off by Hercules, originated, as I have
shown in another chapter, in a knowledge of the octopus; and in the form
and movements of other animals with which we are now familiar we may, in
like manner, recognise the similitude and archetype of the mermaid.
But we must search deeply into the history of mankind to discover the
real source of a belief that has prevailed in almost all ages, and in
all parts of the world, in the existence of a race of beings uniting the
form of man with that of the fish. A rude resemblance between these
creatures of imagination and tradition and certain aquatic animals is
not sufficient to account for that belief. It probably had its origin in
ancient mythologies, and in the sculptures and pictures connected with
them, which were designed to represent certain attributes of the deities
of various nations. In the course of time the meaning of these was lost;
and subsequent generations regarded as the portraits of existing beings
effigies which were at first intended to be merely emblematic and
symbolical.
[Illustration: FIG. 1.--NOAH, HIS WIFE, AND THREE SONS, AS FISH-TAILED
DEITIES.
_From a Gem in the Florentine Gallery. After Calmet._]
Early idolatry consisted, first, in separating the idea of the One
Divinity into that of his various attributes, and of inventing symbols
and making images of each separately; secondly, in the worship of the
sun, moon, stars, and planets, as living existences; thirdly, in the
deification of ancestors and early kings; and these three forms were
often mingled together in strange and tangled confusion.
Amongst the famous personages with whose history men were made
acquainted by oral tradition was Noah. He was known as the second father
of the human race, and the preserver and teacher of the arts and
sciences as they existed before the Great Deluge, of which so many
separate traditions exist among the various races of mankind.
Consequently, he was an object of worship in many countries and under
many names; and his wife and sons, as his assistants in the diffusion of
knowledge, were sometimes associated with him.
According to Berosus, of Babylon,--the Chaldean priest and astronomer,
who extracted from the sacred books of "that great city" much
interesting ancient lore, which he introduced into his 'History of
Syria,' written, about B.C. 260, for the use of the Greeks,--at a time
when men were sunk in barbarism, there came up from the Erythrean Sea
(the Persian Gulf), and landed on the Babylonian shore, a creature named
Oannes, which had the body and head of a fish. But above the fish's head
was the head of a man, and below the tail of the fish were human feet.
It had also human arms, a human voice, and human language. This strange
monster sojourned among the rude people during the day, taking no food,
but retiring to the sea at night; and it continued for some time thus to
visit them, teaching them the arts of civilized life, and instructing
them in science and religion.[34]
[34] Berosus, lib. i. p. 48.
[Illustration: FIG. 2.--HEA, OR NOAH, THE GOD OF THE FLOOD.
_Khorsabad._]
In this tale we have a distorted account of the life and occupation of
Noah after his escape from the deluge which destroyed his home and
drowned his neighbours. Oannes was one of the names under which he was
worshipped in Chaldea, at Erech ("the place of the ark"), as the sacred
and intelligent fish-god, the teacher of mankind, the god of science and
knowledge. There he was also called Oes, Hoa, Ea, Ana, Anu, Aun, and
Oan. Noah was worshipped, also, in Syria and Mesopotamia, and in Egypt,
at "populous No,"[35] or Thebes--so named from "Theba," "the ark."
[35] Nahum iii. 8.
[Illustration: FIG. 3.--DAGON. _From a bas relief. Nimroud._]
The history of the coffin of Osiris is another version of Noah's ark,
and the period during which that Egyptian divinity is said to have been
shut up in it, after it was set afloat upon the waters, was precisely
the same as that during which Noah remained in the ark.
Dagon, also--sometimes called Odacon--the great fish-god of the
Philistines and Babylonians, was another phase of Oannes. "Dag," in
Hebrew, signifies "a male fish," and "Aun" and "Oan" were two of the
names of Noah. "Dag-aun" or "Dag-oan" therefore means "the fish Noah."
He was portrayed in two ways. The more ancient image of him was that of
a man issuing from a fish, as described of Oannes by Berosus; but in
later times it was varied to that of a man whose upper half was human,
and the lower parts those of a fish. The image of Dagon which fell upon
its face to the ground before "the ark of the God of Israel," was
probably of this latter form, for we read[36] that in its fall, "the
head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the
threshold: only the _stump_ (in the margin, "_the fishy part_") of Dagon
was left to him." This was evidently Milton's conception of him:
"Dagon his name; sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish."[37]
[36] 1 Samuel v. 4.
[37] 'Paradise Lost,' Book i. l. 462.
[Illustration: FIG. 4.--DAGON. _After Calmet._]
[Illustration: FIG. 5.--DAGON. _From an Agate Signet. Nineveh._]
In some of the Nineveh sculptures of the fish-god, the head of the fish
forms a kind of mitre on the head of the man, whilst the body of the
fish appears as a cloak or cape over his shoulders and back. The fish
varies in length; in some cases the tail almost touches the ground; in
others it reaches but little below the man's waist.
[Illustration: FIG. 6.--FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU.
_After Calmet and Maurice._]
In one of his "avatars," or incarnations, the god Vishnu "the
Preserver," is represented as issuing from the mouth of a fish. He is
celebrated as having miraculously preserved one righteous family, and,
also, the Vedas, the sacred records, when the world was drowned. Not
only is this legend of the Indian god wrought up with the history of
Noah, but Vishnu and Noah bear the same name--Vishnu being the Sanscrit
form of "Ish-nuh," "the man Noah." The word "avatar" also means "out of
the boat." In fact the whole mythology of Greece and Rome, as well as of
Asia, is full of the history and deeds of Noah, which it is impossible
to misunderstand. In all the representations of a deity having a
combined human and piscine form, the original idea was that of a person
coming out of a fish--not being part of one, but issuing from
it, as Noah issued from the ark. In all of them the fish denoted
"preservation," "fecundity," "plenty," and "diffusion of knowledge."[38]
As the image was not the effigy of a divine personage, but symbolized
certain attributes of Divinity, its sex was comparatively unimportant,
although it is possible that, combined with the fecundity of the fish,
the idea of Noah's wife, as the second mother of all subsequent
generations, according to the widely-spread and accepted traditions of
the deluge, may have influenced the impersonation.
[38] Some writers are of the opinion that the legend of Oannes
contains an allusion to the rising and setting of the sun, and that
his semi-piscine form was the expression of the idea that half his
time was spent above ground, and half below the waves. The same
commentators also regard all the "civilizing" gods and goddesses
as, respectively, solar and lunar deities. The attributes
symbolized in the worship of Noah and the sun are so nearly alike
that the two interpretations are not incompatible.
Atergatis, the far-famed goddess of the Syrians, was also a
fish-divinity. Her image, like that of Dagon, had at first a fish's body
with human extremities protruding from it; but in the course of
centuries it was gradually altered to that of a being the upper portion
of whose body was that of a woman and the lower half that of a fish.
Gatis was a powerful queen of Sidon, and mother of Semiramis. She
received the title of "Ater," or "Ader," "the Great," for the benefits
she conferred on her people; one of these benefits being a strict
conservation of their fisheries, both from their own imprudent use, and
from foreign interference. She issued an edict that no fish should be
eaten without her consent, and that no one should take fish in the
neighbouring sea without a licence from herself. It is not improbable
that she and her celebrated daughter, who is said by Ovid and others to
have been the builder of the walls of Babylon, were worshipped together;
for that Atergatis was the same as the fish-goddess Ashteroth, or
Ashtoreth, "the builder of the encompassing wall," we have, amongst
other proofs, a remarkable one in Biblical history. In the first book of
Maccabees v. 43, 44, we read that "all the heathen being discomfited
before him (Judas Maccabeus) cast away their weapons, and fled unto the
temple that was at _Carnaim_. But they took the city, and burned the
temple with all that were therein. Thus was _Carnaim_ subdued, neither
could they stand any longer before Judas." In the second book of
Maccabees xii. 26, we are told that "Maccabeus marched forth to
_Carnion_, and to the temple of _Atargatis_, and there he slew five and
twenty thousand persons." In Genesis xiv. 5, this city and temple are
referred to as "_Ashteroth Karnaim_."
Fig. 7 is a representation of Atergatis on a medal coined at Marseilles.
It shows that when the Phoenician colony from Syria, by whom that city
was founded, settled there, they brought with them the worship of the
gods of their country.
[Illustration: FIG. 7.--ATERGATIS.
_From a Phoenician coin._]
Atergatis was worshipped by the Greeks as Derceto and Astarte. Lucian
writes[39]:--"In Phoenicia I saw the image of Derceto, a strange sight,
truly! For she had the half of a woman, and from the thighs downwards a
fish's tail." Diodorus Siculus describes (lib. ii.) the same deity, as
represented at Ascalon, as "having the face of a woman, but all the rest
of the body a fish's." And this very same image at Ascalon, which
Diodorus calls Derceto, or Atergatis, is denominated by Herodotus[40]
"the celestial Aphrodite," who was identical with the Cyprian and Roman
Venus. Of all the sacred buildings erected to the goddess, this temple
was by far the most ancient; and the Cyprians themselves acknowledged
that their temple was built after the model of it by certain Phoenicians
who came from that part of Syria.
[39] 'Opera Omnia,' tom. ii. p. 884, edit. Bened. de Dea. Syr.
[40] Lib. i. cap. cv.
[Illustration: FIG. 8.--VENUS RISING FROM THE SEA, SUPPORTED BY TRITONS.
_After Calmet._]
Thus the worship of Noah, as the second father of mankind, the
repopulator of the earth, passed through various phases and
transformations till it merged in that of Venus, who rose from the sea,
and was regarded as the representative of the reproductive power of
Nature--the goddess whom Lucretius thus addressed:
"Blest Venus! Thou the sea and fruitful earth
Peoplest amain; to thee whatever lives
Its being owes, and that it sees the sun:"
and to whom refers the passage in the Orphic hymn:
"From thee are all things--all things thou producest
Which are in heaven, or in the fertile earth,
Or in the sea, or in the great abyss."
Under this latter phase--the impersonation of Venus--the fish portion of
the body was discarded, and the cast-off form was allotted in popular
credence to the Tritons--minor deities, who acknowledged the supremacy
of the goddess, and were ready to render her homage and service by
bearing her in their arms, drawing her chariot, etc., but who still
possessed considerable power as sea-gods, and could calm the waves and
rule the storm, at pleasure.
[Illustration:
FIG. 9. FIG. 10.
VENUS DRAWN IN HER CHARIOT BY TRITONS. _From two Corinthian coins._]
Figs. 9 and 10 are from two Corinthian medals, each shewing Venus in a
car or chariot drawn by Tritons, one male, the other female. On the
obverse of Fig. 9, is the head of Nero, and on that of Fig. 10, the head
of his grandmother Agrippina.[41]
[41] It is worthy of note that the fish was also adopted as an
emblem by the early Christians, and was frequently sculptured on
their tombs as a private mark or sign of the faith in which the
person there interred had died. It alluded to the letters which
composed the Greek word [Greek: Ichthys] ("a fish") forming an
anagram, the initials of words which conveyed the following
sentiment: [Greek: Iesous], Jesus; [Greek: Christos], Christ;
[Greek: Theou], of God; [Greek: gios], Son; [Greek: Soter],
Saviour. But it doubtless bore, also, the older meaning of
"preservation" and "reproduction," of which the fish was the
symbol, and betokened a belief in a future resurrection, as Noah
was preserved to dwell in, and populate, a new world. In 'Sea
Monsters Unmasked,' page 55, I gave a figure, copied by permission
from the _Illustrated London News_, of a rough sculpture in the
Roman catacombs, of Jonah being disgorged by a sea-monster. Near to
it was found, on another Christian tomb, one of these designs of
the "fish;" and it is not a little curious that, whereas the animal
depicted as casting forth Jonah is not a whale, but a sea-serpent,
or dragon, the _ichtheus_ in this instance is apparently not a
fish, but a seal.
[Illustration: FIG. 11.--CHRISTIAN SYMBOL. _From the Catacombs at
Rome._]
The article referred to appeared in the _Illustrated London News_ of
February 3rd, 1872, and the woodcut (fig. 11), an electrotype of
which was most kindly presented to me by the proprietors of that
paper, was one of the sketches that accompanied it.