the lad, seemed to be heavie and mourne
again, until of verie griefe and sorrow
- as it is doubtless to be presumed- he
also was found dead upon the shore."  Pliny
tells a good many stories of a similar kind,
illustrative of the attachment of the
dolphin to the human race. Of another
member of the same family, the porpoise, he does
not speak so highly: "The porpoises, which
the Latines call turtiones, are made like the
dolphins, howbeit they differ in that they
have a more sad and heavie countenance,
for they are nothing so gamesome, playfull,
and wanton, as be the dolphins; but
especially they are snouted like dogges when
they snarle, grin, and are ready to doe a
shrewd turne."

A fish out of water is the commonest
symbol of awkwardness and inaptitude.
There are none of this class who appear to
less advantage, I should imagine, than the
fish of the Euphrates, near Babylon, some of
which, Theophrastus says, " use to issue
forth on land for food and reliefe, going
upon their finnes in lieu of feet, and
wagging their tailes ever as they goe." This
fish is probably the Enocætus, of whom
the Arcadians made " wonderous great
account," that name being given " for
that he goeth abroad and taketh up his
lodging on drie land for to sleepe." He
has other rare properties, for Pliny tells us,"
"he hath a kind of voice, and yet is without
gills. Nevertheless, of some he is called
Adonis."

A fish that resembles a sheep is  odd
enough, but see what he and fellows like him,
do: "In those parts" (say, the Red Sea), "be
found in the sea certaine strange beasts, like
sheepe, which goe forth to land, feed upon the
roots of plants and hearbes, and then returne
againe into the sea.  Others, also, which are
headed like horses, asses, and buls; and
those, many times, eate downe the standing
corne upon the ground."

A more specific account of the Enocætus is
given by Purchas in his Pilgrimage, where,
treating of the stange creatures in the Nile,
he identifies it with the Hippopotamus, "The
which," he says, " goe into the corne grounds
of the Egyptians, and in their feeding go
backward towards the river, so to beguile
men who, looking forwards for them, they
meanwhile convey themselves into the
water." He adds a notable story: " In this
river of Nilus, in the time of Mauritius,
Mena being governour of Egypt, these with
many other saw neere the place where Cairo
now standeth, a Giantly monster, from the
bottom of his belly upwards above the water
like altogether to a man with flaxen hayre,
frowning countenance, and strong limbes.
Some imagined him to be Nilus, the supposed
river deitie. After hee had continued in the
common view of all men three houres, then
came forth of the water another, like a
Woman, with a smooth face, her haire partly

hanging and partly gathered into a knot, and
blacke of colour: her face very faire, rosie
lippes, fingers and brests well proportioned,
but her lower parts hidden in the water:
thus from morning till sun-set they feded
their greedy eyes with this spectacle, which
then sanke down again into the waters."  Of
course, when the subject of Mermaids is
broached, there is plenty to be said by the
collectors of marine curiosities.  "Hondius,"
says Purchas, "speaks of a mermaide, taken
in the Netherlands and taught to spin," but
he cautiously adds, "I swear not to the truth
of it."  Still he has no doubt of their existence.
"But many histories speake of some
like men in their whole shape, both in ours
and other coasts, and some like Lions; and
for Mermaids, in the voyage of Henry Hudson
in Northerly Discoveries, sixteen hundred
and eight, Thomas Ifils and Robert Rainer
saw one rise by the ship-side on the fifteeth
of June; from the navill upwards her backe
and brests like a woman, as likewise her
bigness of body: her afterparts like a
Porpise, and speckled like a Mackerill: when they
called their company to see it, shee sanke
downe."

The mermen, or men of the sea, are called
by the Indians of Guiana, Ypupriapa. " The
men of the country," says one who sailed
with Sir Walter Raleigh, " are so afraid of
them, that many die only with the thought
of them, and none that seeth them scapeth.
Some that died already being demanded the
cause, said, that they had seene this monster.
They properly are like men, of a good stature,
but their eies are very hollow. The females are
like women, they have long haire, and are
beautiful. These monsters" (not very
complimentary to such beautiful creatures), " are
found in the bars of the fresh rivers. In
Igoaripe, seven or eight leagues from the                                                                        bay, have many bin found, and in the yeere
eighty-two, an Indian going to fish, was
chased by one, and, fleeing in a canoa, told it
to his master. The master for to animate
the Indian, would neede go and see the
monster, and being careless, with one hand
out of the canoa, it catcht hold of him, and
carried him away, and he was never seene
againe.  In Port Secure " (rather badly
named), " are some seene, which have killed
some Indians alreadie; the manner of their
killing is to embrace themselves with the
person so strongly, kissing and grasping
it hard to itselfe, that they crush it to
pieces, remaining whole, and when they
perceive it dead, they give some sighings,
in shew of sorrow, and letting them goe
they runne away, and if they carrie any
they eate onely the eies, the nose, the points
of the fingers, and toes, and so ordinarily
they are found on the sands with these things
missing."

In the history of Oriental Ethiopia, by
Father João das Sanctos, we hear of an odd
fish, called " the taile-eating macone," which

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