The Dog-fish And Ray


Olaus Magnus writes of "The cruelty of some Fish, and the kindness of

others. There is a fish of the kind of Sea-Dogfish, called Boloma, in

Italian, and in Norway, Haafisck, that will set upon a man

swimming in the Salt-Waters, so greedily, in Troops, unawares, that he

will sink a man to the bottome, not only by his biting, but also by his

weight; and he will eat his more tender parts, as his nostrils, fingers,

&c., un
il such time as the Ray come to revenge these injuries; which

runs thorow the Waters armed with her natural fins, and with some

violence drives away these fish that set upon the drown'd man, and doth

what he can to urge him to swim out. And he also keeps the man, until

such time as his spirit being quite gone; and after some days, as the

Sea naturally purgeth itself, he is cast up. This miserable spectacle is

seen on the Coasts of Norway when men go to wash themselves, namely,

strangers and Marriners that are ignorant of the dangers, leap out of

their ships into the sea. For these Dogfish, or Boloma, lie hid under

the ships riding at Anchor as Water Rams, that they may catch men, their

malicious natures stirring them to it."



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