Sea serpent

“ In many books on natural history, particularly if herpetology occupy any space, we find the subject wound up with a chapter on ‘The Sea Serpent,’ forming a sort of apologetic little addendum, as if the creature of questionable existence must claim no space in the heart of the volume, yet is not quite so unimportant as to be omitted altogether. ”

“ You are to go to the kingdom of the Great Sea Serpent who dwells in the depths of the seas and ask him to give you some of the darkness of night that his daughter may not die here amid the sunlight of our earth land. ”

“ From the head, the long, brown body of the sea serpent extended to the hole in the coral wall, which was just big enough to admit it; and how much more of the body remained outside the child could not tell. On the back of the body were several fins, which made the creature look more like an eel than a serpent.
"The girl is young and the man is old," said King Anko in a soft voice. ”

“ The most cautious naturalists, while endeavoring to explain on various hypotheses the authentic appearances of marine monsters resembling serpents,—one theory being that they are abnormal cases of unusual growth of ordinary marine animals, and another that they are individuals of an almost extinct race,—are compelled to admit that the time may come when, with further evidence, scientific examination will accurately determine the question, and the Sea Serpent take its place among the acknowledged dwellers in the sea. ”

“ The widely spreading worship of the serpent, a form of religion that we find in so many lands and throughout centuries of time, is a most interesting subject of study, though we can here only regret that exigencies of space compel us to do no more than merely mention it.
The belief in sea-serpents does not appear in itself to be an unreasonable one, much as it is from time to time ridiculed. ”

“ Amongst his illustrations of the sea monsters he describes are the two of which I give facsimiles on the next page. In Fig. 12 a sea-serpent is seen writhing in many coils upon the surface of the water, and having in its mouth a sailor, whom it has seized from the deck of a ship. The poor fellow is trying to grasp the ratlins of the shrouds, but is being dragged from his hold and lifted over the bulwarks by the monster. ”

“ As marine snakes some feet in length, and having fin-like tails adapted for swimming, abound over an extensive geographical range, and are frequently met with far at sea, I cannot regard it as impossible that some of these also may attain to an abnormal and colossal development. Dr. Andrew Wilson, who has given much attention to this subject, is of the opinion that "in this huge development of ordinary forms we discover the true and natural law of the production of the giant serpent of the sea." ”

“ Down, far down, stretches the serpent, Midgard’s snake, that bites its own tail as it encircles the earth. Fish and shell beat upon it with their heads—they understand not the thing—it is from above. Men’s thoughts in all languages course through it noiselessly. “The serpent of science for good and evil, Midgard’s snake, the most wonderful of all the ocean’s wonders, our—GREAT SEA-SERPENT!”
THE END ”

“ Every monster with which imagination has peopled the sea seemed to be there to attack me—strange serpent or lizard like beasts, slimy and scaled, thronging along the ceiling or up the sides, swimming around me, or burrowing through the sand. ”

“ If fishes have the misfortune to come in contact with one of these creatures, each tentacle, by a movement as rapid as a flash of light, or sudden as an electric shock, seizes and benumbs them, winding round their bodies as a serpent winds itself round its victim. ”

“ A snake has neither fins, flippers, flappers, nor ‘shoulders fifteen feet broad;’ therefore this assuredly was no ‘sea serpent.’ Nor would it be introduced here, excepting as inviting further comment on its mysterious existence. ”

“ The consideration of the Hydrophidæ naturally suggests an allusion to an animal of great size, and serpent-like form, believed to inhabit the ocean, and commonly spoken of as the Great Sea-Serpent. For ages the conviction of its existence has prevailed among the inhabitants of Norway ”

“ In the evening we fell asleep on the bank of the sea, but were awaked by the noise of a serpent as long as a palm tree, whose scales made a rustling as he crept along. He swallowed up one of my comrades, notwithstanding his loud cries and the efforts he made to rid himself from the serpent, which shook him several times against the ground, and crushed him; and we could hear him gnaw and tear the poor wretch's bones, when we had fled a great distance from him. Next day we saw the serpent again, to our great terror, and I cried out, 'O heaven, to what dangers are we exposed! ”

“ She uses every species of blandishment and insinuation to allure and beguile, as the serpent employs its windings and sinuous motions to pass along the rocks; she pursues a course surrounded with danger, as a ship in the midst of the sea is continually exposed to the fury of the tempest, and the hazard of shipwreck; and she tries every means, and exercises all her sagacity, to prevent the discovery of her illicit enjoyments, as a man attempts to conceal his clandestine intercourse with a maid. ”

“ The marks of the sea are still on us, as the marks of the serpent are still on us, ere the serpent became serpent and we became we, when pre-serpent and pre-we were one. Once we flew in the air, and once we dwelt aboreally and were afraid of the dark. ”

“ From all we have read and heard of a singular sea-monster that has been seen from time to time in various parts of the ocean, it is difficult to doubt that some such creature, or creatures rather, may exist; though the reiterated allegations of "old salts," that they do exist, may be but a relic of that dark superstition known as serpent-worship, which once prevailed over a great part of the world, and which still lingers in India, particularly among the Nagas, and of which snake-charming is a remnant. ”

“ Our readers will not be astonished at seeing the dolphin, the whale, and the sea-urchin classed here with fishes. We are not treating of natural history according to the classifications of science, but of the gross classifications made by impressionable popular imaginations. Thus, amongst the animals of the water we shall find the serpent described, although it be amphibious, because popular belief makes the dragon watch over the waters. ”

“ There is, it must firstly be remarked, nothing in the slightest degree improbable in the idea that an ordinary species of sea-snake, belonging to a well-known group of reptiles, may undergo a gigantic development and appear as a monster serpent of the deep. The experience of comparative anatomists is decidedly in agreement with such an opinion. Largely developed individuals of almost every species of animals and plants occasionally occur. ”

“ A sea urchin or a starfish is able to get away from a spot quite nimbly, and the serpent-stars, the most active members of the whole order, are capable of using their long, slender, many-jointed arms as legs, and are as quick and alert as crabs. ”

“ They have long and thick feet, armed with large claws, the skin hard and of various colours. The mouth and face are like those of a serpent. They have a crest like a saw, which extends from the nose to the end of the tail. We concluded that they were serpents and poisonous, yet they eat them. 76 We found that the natives made bread of small fishes, which they take from the sea, first boiling them, then pounding them into a paste, and roasting them in the cinders, and so they are eaten. ”

“ They who Work of Navigation, on the Coasts of Norway, employ themselves in fishing, or merchandize, do all agree in this strange Story, that there is a Serpent there which is of a Vast Magnitude, namely 200 feet long, and, moreover, 20 foot thick; and is wont to live in Rocks and Caves toward the Sea Coast about Berge; which will go alone from his holes in a clear night in Summer, and devour Calves, Lambs, and Hogs, or else he goes into the Sea to feed on Polypus, Locusts, and all sorts of Sea Crabs. ”

“ Olaus Magnus Hist. B. xxi.
This Serpent is found in the Lybian Deserts, and also in the Island of Lemnos, in the Ægean Sea. The Puncture made by its Wounds is so small, that it can scarcely be discerned, yet terminates in a dreadful Inflammation and a lingering Death.
ERASMUS was puzzled about the Sense of that Greek Proverb ὑδρος εν φιθω, hydrus in dolio, a Serpent in the Hogshead: The Meaning of it, said an Interpreter of Dreams, is this: A certain Person had a Vessel of Wine, that was constantly diminishing, tho’ carefully lock’d up ”

“ Lichen Cinereus Terrestris, Venice Treacle, and several Vegetables, &c., 29, 30, 31, 145 —— one Drop of it a Match for a Sea of Blood, 32 —— when not dangerous, 33 —— exhaustible in Serpents by quick repeated Acts, but soon recruited, 35 Poetical Apology for a Sot, 73, 4 Polonga Serpent, describ’d, 90 Priests, their Genius for Cruelty. See Mexico. Prussians and Lithuanians, Serpent-Worshippers, 226 R. Rattle-Snake. Vid. Caudisonant. Red-belly Snake, 126 Red-back Snake, 127 Rivers ador’d, 210 Rubetarian Serpent, 143 —— —— loud and pretty, ibid. ”

“ In a moment more the head and neck of one of those tremendous serpents that of late years have infested the lake, were uplifted some ten or fifteen feet above the surface. Almost at the same instant we beheld the head, face and hair, as of a human being, emerge quickly from the water, and look back toward the pursuing foe. The truth flashed upon us instantaneously. Here was a mermaid pursued by a serpent. ”

“ At a distance of not more than three cables’ lengths from us, rushing through the water at a speed equal to that of a railway train, and lashing the water into foam with the rapid movement of his huge convolutions, a monstrous serpent appeared, darting towards the wretched persecuted whale. ”

“ On the 6th of July, 1734, there appeared a very large and frightful sea monster, which raised itself so high out of the water that its head reached above our main-top. It had a long, sharp snout, and spouted water like a whale; and very broad flappers. The body seemed to be covered with scales, and the skin was uneven and wrinkled, and the lower part was formed like a snake. After some time the creature plunged backwards into the water, and then turned its tail up above the surface, a whole ship-length from the head. ”

“ The next Thing that offers itself, is an Attempt to illustrate the Case between the Woman and Serpent: It seems most apparent to me, that under the Name of the Serpent, we are to understand the Devil, who made use of a real Serpent in his Descent upon Paradise, where he decoy’d the first Woman into the fatal Snare.
In the Curse upon the Serpent, ’tis said, the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent’s Head; intimating, the Serpent having its Heart under the Throat, and very near the Head, the readiest way to kill it, is to squeeze the Head. ”

“ The symbolical representation of the solar year in the form of a serpent biting his tail is equivalent to the myth of the monster-serpent who dies when his eggs are broken, that is, when the light comes out of its tenebrous envelope. ”

“ It is larger than a Viper, and more gross in Body; brings forth its Young by Eggs, hatch’d by foreign Heat; feeds on 143Mice; sucks Cows, upon which follows Blood. The Reader is referred to a former.
300. Οφεις οικουροι.
Plate 6th.
CXXVIII. The Marine-Dragon, as Pliny calls it, or the true Marine-Serpent, in the Dialect of Jonstonus, who, in his Description of Fishes, gives a particular account of it. We have already accounted for monstrous Serpents in the Indies, where some have Teeth in the form of a Saw, with which they do more hurt than with their Poison, says the Greek Historian [301] . ”

“ Sometimes in this totally quiescent state one has been supposed to be dead, until, on a stone being thrown, it has darted away like a fish. None of the aquatic birds or the cetaceous mammalia can remain so long under water without coming to the surface to breathe as serpents can. ”

“ In the dead of night, his companions on board were aroused by dreadful screams; they immediately went ashore, but they came too late, the cries had ceased—the man had breathed his last in the folds of an enormous serpent, which they killed. They cut off the head of the snake and carried it, together with the lifeless body of their comrade, to the vessel; the right wrists of the corpse bore the marks of the serpent's teeth, and the disfigured body showed that the man had been crushed by the constriction of the reptile round the head, neck, breast, and thigh. ”

“ Tho’ these Monsters are born in the Deep, yet are they found in fresh Waters, and sometime sporting upon Land, where they sleep [302] .
302. Jonston. de Piscib. p. 9. Articulus v.
The same Author tells us, of a terrible Battle that happen’d in Turkey, in the time of Bajazet, between the land and marine Serpents, that continued from Morning to Night, when after a great Destruction on both sides, the Marines fled. Ibid.
CXXIX. The Rubetarian-Serpent is a very noisy Animal, who for its croaking Noise is resembled to a land Toad. ”

“ Add to the two great death-dealing powers of the serpent race—constriction and venom—those other peculiarities which have here been faithfully recorded, the seeming renewal of life after the annual sleep, a mystery enhanced by the restored brilliancy and beauty of the reptile on its change of cuticle; let us picture to ourselves those wondering savages now watching the limbless creature as it glides into sight and is gone again, or as with fixed and glittering eyes it flickers that mysterious little tongue ”

“ N. B. Some of these Eastern Serpents may coincide and agree in Character with those in America, and other Regions. Where there is such an infinite Variety of them, and delineated by so many different hands, ’tis difficult to give an exact Description of every individual Serpent.
Other parts of the East-Indies (Continent and Islands) are infested with Serpents of various kinds and sizes, and he must be more than a Conjurer in History, that can charm them to make their Appearance in one Place, and all in their proper Habiliments. ”