Note 152 — Chapter XII
Reading edition
An old English Miscellany, containing a “Bestiary,” &c., ed. R. Morris (E.E.T.S.), 1872, p. 17. The “Phisiologus” is quoted in Chaucer, apparently from this very “Bestiary”; and Dr. Morris says that scraps of it are found even in Elizabethan writers. I add a translation of the piece quoted:—“Whilst that weather is so bad, the ships that are driven about on the sea (death is unwelcome, men love to live) look about them and see this fish; they ween it is an island. They are very glad of it, and with all their might they draw towards it, make the ships fast, and all go ashore. With stone and steel and tinder they make a good fire on this monster, and warm themselves well, and eat and drink; the whale feels the fire and makes them sink, for he quickly dives to the bottom, he kills them all without wound.”