Their legends.
Punishments for gambling,
- selves, especially since a learned Jesuit confirmed the
actual existence of this prodigy of the ocean. But the sea monsters of the Middle Ages, unlike those of our own day, were happily at times instruments of good. One of them, and the statement is attested by a whole boat's crew of seamen, actually swallowed an unbelieving sailor who had been playing at dice, and who, while at play, had wickedly defied the Virgin Mary. So thoroughly were the authorities convinced that this marvellous story was a fact, that to prevent any more sailors from being thus summarily disposed of, the playing of dice was afterwards strictly forbidden on board ship. This happy change appears to have extended to the ships of England, for when Richard I. repaired to the Holy Land he enforced a regulation, that if any seaman played at dice, or any other game of a similar character, without licence, he should be plunged into the sea three mornings successively by way of punishment.
and swearing. Seamen of all ages would seem to have been grievously addicted to swearing;[1] and, although the Church and State of every nation have endeavoured to control this wicked and foolish practice, it still prevails to a large extent on board of merchant ships, and is only now curtailed or stifled in ships of war by the strict discipline maintained in them. It was almost universal in the Middle Ages. The French and Mediterranean sailor swore by his bread, by his wine, and by his salt, in the same way that King Richard[2]
