Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/205

Rh spirit to the sun of righteousness,. . . and then dip himself thrice in the well-spring of salvation."

Again, one version of the Physiologus tells us that the upper beak of old eagles grows so long that it would prevent them from eating and cause them to die of hunger did they not break off the superfluous part of the beak against a stone; and on this alleged fact is based the statement that "the rock of salvation is the only cure for the growth of carnal-mindedness, and the sole means of preventing spiritual starvation."

Of marine animals the early Christian philosophers knew little, but naturally they had heard of the whale, and found important meanings in him. One of the lessons taught by the whale is given as follows: "When he is hungry, he opens his wide mouth seaward and a pleasant odor issues from his maw, so that other fishes are deceived and swim eagerly toward the place whence this sweet odor comes. In heedless shoals they enter into his extended jaws; then suddenly the grim gums close and crush their prey. Thus the devil allures men to their destruction and closes upon them the barred gates of hell."

The mediæval imagination played curiously about the pelican. A type of the atonement was found in the supposed fact that the pelican tears open its breast and feeds its young with its own blood. New value was given to the pelican by that great thinker, St. Augustine. Writing upon the passage in the one hundred and second Psalm—"I am become like a pelican in the wilderness"—he says: "The males of these birds are wont to kill their young by blows of their beaks and then to bewail their death for the space of three days. At length, however, the female inflicts a severe wound on herself, and, letting her blood flow over the dead ones, brings them to life again."

Naturally, this statement, coming from a man so widely venerated, proved a great source of inspiration to the pious writers and sculptors of the middle ages.

The otter and the crocodile also attracted the attention of these pious writers, and they developed in good faith the following statement: "When the crocodile sleeps, it keeps its mouth open; but the otter wallows in the mire until it becomes thickly coated with mud, which dries and hardens and forms a sort of armor, thus enabling it to run securely into the jaws and down the throat of the sleeping crocodile, and to kill it by devouring its bowels. So our Saviour, after having put on flesh, descended into hell and carried away the souls dwelling therein; and, as the otter comes away unharmed from the belly of the crocodile, so our Lord rose from the grave on the third day, alive and uninjured."