accounts of monstrous _Polypi_ infesting the northern seas; how far may
not the _Cuttle-fish_ have given rise to this fiction? In hot countries
(our readers will remember that in a late paper, _Mirror_, vol. xvii. pp.
282-299, we directed their attention to the similarity of superstitions in
every country of the world, hence infering a common, and most probably
oriental origin for all)--in hot countries cuttle-fish are found of
gigantic dimensions; the Indians affirm that some have been seen two
fathoms broad over their centre; and each arm (for this kind is the
eight-armed cuttle-fish) nine fathoms long!!! Lest these animals should
fling their arms over the Indians' light canoes, and draw them and their
owners into the sea, they fail not to be provided with an axe to chop them
off.

The ancients believed that the oil of the _Grayling_ obliterated freckles
and small-pox marks. The adhesive qualities of the _Remora_, or
_Sucking-fish_, and its habit of darting against and fixing itself to the
side of a vessel, caused the ancients to believe that the possessors of it
had the power of arresting the progress of a ship in full sail.

Some Catholics, in consequence of the _John Doree_ having a dark spot,
like a finger-mark, on each side of the head, believe this to have been
the fish, and not the _Haddock_, from which the Apostle Peter took the
tribute-money, by order of our Saviour. The modern Greeks denominate it
"the fish of St. Christopher," from a legend which relates that it was
trodden on by that saint, when he bore his divine burden across an arm of
the sea. Some species of _Echini_, fossilized, and seen frequently in
Norfolk, are termed by the ignorant peasantry, and considered, _Fairy
Loaves_, to take which, when found, is highly unlucky.

The _Amphisbaena_, from its faculty of moving backwards or forwards at