It was an admirable artistic exploit,
rarely achieved by the best harpooneers of the present day;
inasmuch as this Leviathan was slain at the very first dart.
And let no man doubt this Arkite story; for in the ancient Joppa,
now Jaffa, on the Syrian coast, in one of the Pagan temples,
there stood for many ages the vast skeleton of a whale,
which the city's legends and all the inhabitants asserted
to be the identical bones of the monster that Perseus slew.
When the Romans took Joppa, the same skeleton was carried to Italy
in triumph. What seems most singular and suggestively important
in this story, is this: it was from Joppa that Jonah set sail.
Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda--indeed, by some
supposed to be indirectly derived from it--is that famous story
of St. George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have
been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons
are strangely jumbled together, and often stand for each other.
"Thou art as a lion of the waters, and as a dragon of
the sea," said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale;
in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word itself.
Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit
had St.
Pages:
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593