"
"Did you observe the formidable dentilated horn?"
"It is by means of this horn or sword, from which it takes its name,
that it wages a continual war with the whale, whose only mode of
escape is by flourishing its enormous tail; but the sword-fish, being
very agile, easily avoids this, bounds into the air as Fritz saw it
doing just now, then, falling down upon its huge adversary, pierces
him with its sword."
"By the way, talking about the whale," said Jack, "all naturalists
seem agreed, and we ourselves are convinced from our own observation,
that its throat is very narrow, and that it can only swallow molluscs,
or very small fishes--what, in that case, becomes of the history of
Jonah?"
"It is rather unfortunate," replied Becker, "that the whale has been
associated with this miracle. There is now no possibility of
separating the whale from Jonah, or Jonah from the whale; yet, in the
Greek translation of the Chaldean text, there is _Ketos_--in the
Latin, there is _Cete_--and both these words were understood by the
ancients to signify a fish of enormous size, but not the whale in
particular. The shark, for example, can swallow a man, and even a
horse, without mangling it."
"I have heard," said Jack, "of navigators who have landed on the back
of a whale, and walked about on it, supposing it a small island.
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