TALL TALES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 29, 4 February 1932, Page 22

TALL TALES

THE ANCIENTS AND ,pV< /'BEASTS ..-■■■;- i-:.

Whales and crocodiles

Although1 Aristotle, Pliny, and other classical writers had made quite minute examinations of the structure of animal bodies, very little was known ,in medieval Europe about tho habits"of animals, ,aud in piaco of aetuar knowledge; a vast number of idle tales wcrii concocted about them by writers and travellers^ which for many centuries were blindly accepted by the great majority 'as i being beyond question; in fact, the moro marvellous they were tho moro likely they were to be believed, says a writer in the "Sydney Morning Herald." Medieval natural history books were called Bestiaries br Books of Beasts, and one of the earliest English works of this kind, which wag •written1 and illuminated on vellum about 1180, is now in. tho British Museum.

Some wonderful and feai-i'ul creatures appear upon its pages, one of tho quaintest of which is a whale, and tho account of its habits proves very clearly that the fishing story of to-day is much what it was 700 or 800 yoars ago. The ancient volume tells us that the whalo was in tho habit of coming to' the sea surface and remaining there in a perfectly quiescent state for long periods' together, during which tinio hand and soil collected on its back, in which shrubs aud trees began to grow, and passing mariners, concluding they had- found-an island, would' anchor, upon it for rest and refreshment. A'

picture shows us the Leviathan thus quietly engaged in meditation with a ship made fast alongside; trees are sprouting up from its back, and one'of the sailors is standing on the imagined island engaged in blowing up a 1 fire •which ho has lighted with quite a modern-looking pair of bellows. Unfortunately, however, according to tho ancient historian, these fires often caused trouble. Tho heat penetrating through tho thick coat of blubber roused tbe whale from his day-dreams, and with a swish oil his mighty tail down he would plunge into the depths of the ocean, dragging the unfortunate sh/p after him by her cable. POPULAR. Whale stories have been very popular . throughout the centuries right down to the present day, -when we read of them being killed wholesale with guns and bombs in tho -.ntarctic by whaling ships from Norway. One of the most amusing -whaling pictuiPS I have ever come across is a woodcut of the days of Elizabeth, and shows one a huge whale being cut up on the open sea beach. Besides the gentlemen in b"«ver hats, trunk hose, and elaborate ruifs who arc cutting off the blubber, there are a drummer aud a piper en-' couraging' them with iively music, ■whilst two other individuals are enjoying liquid refreshment from huge tankards, comfortably seated on the monster's, tail. , In the words of the very old writers on tho denizens of the sea, it is hard to determine which is a shark,-though' shark stories must have gono the round ever since men first put forth upon the waters from those coasts - round ■which, in the summer time at least, the' sea temperatuie \\as sufficiently high to suit the tigers of the deep. \Ve have thrilling accounts of tho basking shark, a monster of whalc-liUo dimensions, which even in the eighteenth century was said to frequent the British coasts. A print done in 1770 shows one the method of capturing this creature, which, like tho ancient whale, seems to have been fond of dozing ou the surface. It must have really been quite sound asleep, otherwise the very large boat-load of adventurous souls intent upon its cap--1 turo could hardly have got so close without^ disturbing it. The harpooner, one notices, is-in the act of plunging his huge .weapon into the . creature's' head/ and riot into its vitals, as was the genial custom. T ' In Ambrose Pare's great work on surgery, published in Paris in (1579, be gives us many pictures of strange beasts, birds, and fishes, and things one can hardly classify, such as mermaids and mermen, which were fondly believed.in by most people in his day. Jacques &c Vitry, writing in the 13th century, says that the Capercailzie, well known in. Northern Europe, when in its first ! year, ''is a bhd of great honour, taking larks and partridges' like a noble fowl; in ,his second year he taketh sparrows and small birds;1 in his third year beetles, mice, flies,, and worms; and thus ho declined) ever to the w;orse, until at length ho b'ecometh bo slothful as to suffer himself to die of hunger." Another medieval' writer describes the dog and cat in an' intimate way, he evidently having made a closo, study of their habits. ' „ CROCODILE TEAKS.

Of the cat he says, amongst many other things, that in time of love ho is hard at fighting for wives, and one ficratcheth and rendeth the ottier grievously with'biting and with claws. And he maketh a ruthful noyso and gastfull, when one proffereth to fygfite with another, and falleth on his own feete when he falleth out of higgle places." He also tells us that tha hound hath moie wit than other beasts, and that hounds that are to [bo used as watch-dogs "should bo kept close and bound in a dark place by day, and so they be stronger by .night and the more cruel against thieves. ", Marvellous tales were told of the crocodile, or "Coeodril." It was believed that aftpr he had killed a man he wept'over him before eating him, hence the saying "crocodile tears." When, one of these fearsome beasts had made a full meal he would lie on the river bank with his great jaws wide open, .and , one of a .. particular species of little bird would come along, and, hopping into the cavernous mouthy would diligently act the part of a tooth cleaner. One might have thought that the great saurian would have been grateful for this delicate attention; but, gratitude not being one of his attributes/he would Willingly have snapped his jaws on the delicate little morsel hopping about within, had not Dame Nature (so the ancient chronicler tells us) thoughtfully provided the little scavenger with a very sharp spike on the top of its head, whicli' effectually prevented its host from making of it a final bonne bouche. Of birds, many other wonders were known to ancient travellers, which, unfortunately for us, have vanished with the dodo. Tbeie was, for instance, that very marvellous creature the Phoenix, of which the description 'of the Irish schoolboy is as accurate, and certainly more concise than those of the ancients. This bright youth said "The Phaynix is a bird that builds' its iuest of sticks, then it sits on it, seta a light to it, roasts itself, eats itself for supper, goes to slape, and wakes up again in the mornin', powerful hungry." Finally, ive come to perhaps the strangest bird of all, called the Bird of God, which was said to be found nowhere but in the Molucca Islands, in the Indian Ocean. Even there no mortal oye had ever looked upon one alive; they were only seen wiieu a chance specimen was found lying on the ground ,(lead. They spent almost the whole of their lives in the air, and in the place of foet had very long featherß, which they twined round branches of trees if they ever wanted to sleep; they fed on nothing but fresh air, and the dews of heaven, and by a wonderful provision of Nature, the cock bird had a deep cavity in hia back in which

the heu; laid and hatched out hor young; from this circumstance we may realise \how very seldom it • was that1 this admirable, creature: ever needed a rest. Ambrose Pare, the father of ■modern -surgery, - assures -us - that ho saw a'stuffed specimen in Paris which had been presented to: King Charles the IX., therefore the story must be true. .■' . '.'■ ■ ';. ' ;