SCALY ENIGMAS

摘要

The Dutch explorer fan Huyghen van Linschoten encountered a fabulous and unusual beast while travelling around India in the late 16th century. It was a "fish of most wonderfull and strange forme", about the size of a "middle-sized dogge", and had beenhauled out of a river in Goa. It ran around "snorting like a hogge" and was covered in "scales a thumb's breadth, harder than iron or steel". When attacked, it rolled into a ball and could not be prised open. Van Linschoten was baffled, though he had seen plenty of exotic wonders. Particularly when the creature unfurled itself and scuttled off to safety. What on Earth was this thing?