war, pestilence, famine, and death to man and beast. * * * This insect
has been thought to be peculiarly gifted in having a voice and
squeaking like a mouse when handled or disturbed; but, in truth, no insect
that we know of has the requisite organs to produce a genuine voice; they
emit sounds by other means, probably all external."

The Icelanders believe _Seals_ to be the offspring of Pharaoh and his host;
who, they assert, were changed into these animals when overwhelmed in the
Red Sea. The _Grampus_, _Porpoise_, and _Dolphin_, have each from the
earliest ages been the subject of numerous superstitions and fables,
particularly the latter, which was believed to have a great attachment to
the human race, and to succour them in accidents by sea; it is a perfectly
straight fish, yet even painters have promulgated a falsity respecting it,
by representing it from the curved form in which it appears above water,
bent like the letter S reversed. "The inhabitants of Pesquare," says Dr.
Belon, "and of the borders of Lake Gourd are firmly persuaded that the
_Carp_ of those lakes are nourished with pure gold; and a great portion of
the people in the Lyonnois are fully satisfied that the fish called
_humble_ and _ernblons_ eat no other food than gold. There is not a
peasant in the environs of the Lake of Bourgil who will not maintain that
the _Laurets_, a fish sold daily in Lyons, feed on pure gold alone. The
same is the belief of the people of the Lake Paladron in Savoy, and of
those near Lodi. But," adds the Doctor, "having carefully examined the
stomachs of these several fishes, I have found that they lived on other
substances, and that from the anatomy of the stomach it is impossible that
they should be able to digest gold." This fable, therefore, with that of
the _Chameleon_ living on air only, and some others which we shall have
occasion to mention, may be regarded amongst those exploded by science.

The fable of the _Kraken_ has been referred to imperfect and exaggerated