Note 116 — PART II
Reading edition
S. Bochart, Hierozoicon (Leipzig, 1796), p. 868, telling of a fish whose right ear bore the words, There is no God, but God, and left, Apostle of God, and neck, Mahomet, concludes with a parody of Virgil, Buc., iii. 104.
“Die quibus in terris inscripti nomina Divum Nascantur pisces, et eris mihi magnus Apollo!”
A magnus Apollo to graduate the claims of the different potentates would indeed be a boon. The capture of a fish some two years ago near Zanzibar with Arabic inscriptions—legible only by the faithful—caused immense excitement, as possibly foretelling the speedy end of the world.