The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-09-30
OLD TALES OF THE SEA.
The MOnstrOus Cutilefish Dreaded by
Seamen-A Story of Getaways.
From the London Telegraph.

Sth1IAch-A SGOAy "a
From the London Telegraph.
In olden times sailors must have been
harassed by many g%roundless alarms. SUI
perstitions were abundant, and crews be-
Spanish poetic chroniclers OF Columbus
crowd the plain narrative Of his voyage
with miracles and wonders. The true spirit
| OF the primitive sea fancies is marvelously
expressed in 'The Ancient Mariner" with
it's delicate, beautiful, spiritual machinery,
and it's amazingly real oceanic atmosphere.
In those days Jack, looking over the side,
was prepared to see anything, n to this
willing disposition in that way may be at
tributed the whole tribes OF mermaids, sea~
serpents, %grinning or winking monsters, and
leviathians big enough to bear the globe on
their back.
There was the squid, for instance. which,
as the Sepia octopus, we know, in these
days, 10 be an extremely large and most
diabolically unpleasant, mOnstrous beast;
but in the olden times, they reckoned this
| horror to be OF the size OF q cathedral, in
proof whereof, the following story is re-
cited:
A big ship was on the West African coast;
the men were getting up the anchor, when a
squid arose, and wreathed it's fearful,
Sutkc-llkc HLlDS dIOuLu JIG FcS6tl . spurs.
The tips of these limbs scared quiveringly
high above the mast-heads, and the weight
Of the cutie hove the ship down on to her
beam ends. Here, now, was a lively situa-
ton. The crew piled axes and knives, but
in vain, whereupon they invoked the aid OF
their patron saint, Thomas. Eventually,
the wounded monster grew alarmed and
sank, and the crew afterwards, to COM
memorate their deliveranoe, marched in a
body to the Church OF st. Thomas, where
subsequently there was hung up a painting
representing the unparalleled conflict. One
may assume it would not need many such
squids to keep Jack in a constant state OF
anxiety, and to breed all sorts OF alarms.
This particular monster is evidently no lon
ger feared, but are not its traditions pre-
served by the imperishable sea-serpent that
appears about every ten years to send a
company OF sailors home with faces on
them as long as wet hammocks, and their
heads stuffed full OF notions about lengths
without limits, breadth without dimen-
sions, and jaws gaping ~moonward as though
hungering for that dainty morsel Of ord?
To my fancy | can conceive OF no alarm
ever excited through sroundless or substan-
tia reasons at sea to equal the horror one
finds in the singular narrative OF Peter Ser
rano. This man escaped shipwreck by SWIM
!uluS " n uCSCiV lolAAlo, "uClC GucTt WIN !
neither wood, nOrgrass nor ~water-nothina,
in short. for the support OF human life.
Nevertheless, he made shift to keep body and
soul together for no less than three years, at |
the end OF which time, to quote the lam
guage OF the old %chronicler, "Serrano was |
strangely surprised by the appearance OF a
a OF his island whose ship had the night
before been cast away upon these sands,
AS soon as they saw each other it was hard
to say which was the most amazed. Serrano
imagined it was the devil who came ii!
the shape OF a man to tempt Ia, g.,
despair. The new conner believed Serrana
to be the devil in his proper shape and
figure, being covered over with hair and
beard. In fine, they were both afraid, flying
one from the other. Peter Serrano cried out
as he ram, Jesus, Jesus, deliver me from
the DEVIL The other, hearing this, took
courage, and returning again to him called
out: Brother, brother, DOM fly from me,
cause he saw that serrano still ran from
Creed, in words aloud, which, when Serrano
heard, he knew that it was no devil that
would recite these words, and thereupon
gave a stop to his flight, and returning with
great kindness, they embraced each other
with signs and tears, lamenting their sad
state, without any hope OF deliverance."
It is the supers!itious element in this story
that gives it it's humor. Yet that quality.
perfectly consistent i'll the mariner of the
lays of Peter Serrano, must have been long
perpetuated. otherwise the nautical annals
would be lacking in a good many scares or 1
alarms which could not possibly have been
excited had not Jack participated in some
hing OF these emotions which made Ser