Urchin, Rochester Bestiary, c.1230
The Rochester Bestiary records that urchins can stick to the hull of a ship and sink them.
Transcription
Translation
si adheret navi; facit eam inmobiliter stare.
Plerumque index future tempestatis e terra nuntius
solet esse navigantibus. Denique cum procellam ventorum
senserit; calculum validum arripit. eumque velut
Echinus is a small fish and semi-pedal. If he adheres to the ship; makes her stand motionless. Generally, the forecast of future weather is usually a message from the land to the sailors. Finally, when he felt a storm of winds;
ciatur fluctibus. Itaque non suis se liberat virubus. sed
alieno stabilit et regit pondere. Quo inditio naute
velut signum future perturbationis tapescunt; et
sibi precavent. ne eos inperatos inprovisus turbo inveni-
at. Quis matematicus. quis astrologus. quis caldeus
poterit fiderum cursus. et sic celi motus et signa com-
prehendere; Quo ingenio ista colligit. quo doctore
percipit; Quis ei tanti fuit interpres augurii. Sepe
hominis aeris confusionem vident et sepe falluntur.
quia plerumque eam sine tempestate discuciunt. Echinus
non fallitur. nequaquam sua signa pretereunt. Unde tam
exiguo animali tanta scientia; ut futura prenuntiet;
He takes hold of a strong stone, and drives it like a ballast, and drags it like an anchor; not to be shaken by the waves. Therefore he does not free himself from his own forces, but he establishes and governs by the weight of another. Whereupon the sailors, as a sign of the future disturbance, tap out this indifference; and they pray for themselves, lest an unexpected storm find them unprepared.
Who is a mathematician, who is an astrologer, who is a heathen, will be able to comprehend the course of faith, and thus the movements and signs of the heavens. By what genius he gathers these things, by what teacher he perceives; Who was the interpreter of the augury worth to him? They see the confusion of the air man's fence, and they are mistaken for the fence, because they usually discuss it without a storm. Echinus is not mistaken, they do not exceed their standards. Whence so little knowledge of the animal; to foretell the future;