The sea under the Torrid Zone bears some strange fish, very different from those of our seas. Amongst others, strange to say, are certain fish that eat and devour men. At the Maldives are many of these, for they love the shallow water there, and roam in great numbers. The fish is very large, nine or ten feet in length, and big in proportion, i.e. more than a man's armful; it has no scales, but is covered with a kind of hide of a dark hue, albeit white under the belly, though not of the same thickness or toughness as that of the whale. The head is round, high, and somewhat broad, garnished with a number of great pointed teeth set in many rows. The inhabitants of the Maldives are much incommoded by these animals, for they come and devour them as they fish and bathe, or, at least, dock their arms or legs. You see there many of the people that have lost a leg or an arm, or a hand, or have been wounded elsewhere in their bodies by the bites of these fish. I have seen many at the Maldives thus maimed; indeed, I have seen some of these fish caught with whole limbs of men in their bellies. Every day some accident happens, because it is the usual custom of the people to bathe and wash in the sea.