"Crabs" (which were often confounded with lobsters) "when they will
be afraid, will recule backward, as fast as they went forward."
2nd. In the celebrated work of Sebastian Brandt, entitled _Stultifera
Naxis_ (which went through many editions after its first appearance in
1494), is an engraving of a fool, wearing cap and bells, seated astride
on the back of a lobster, with a broken reed in his hand, and a pigeon
flying past him as he stares vacantly at it with open mouth. The
following lines are attached:--