A combat on the margin of the sea between Spain’s favorite and monsterous octopi.
Tokeo [Japan] Times.
    The story given below was communicated by a correspondent; “The author of “Schuykidan” who lived some sixty years ago, was once traveling in Mutta, one of the northern provinces. Walking one day near the beach he heard the bellow of a bull, and went in the direction of the noise. He was then witness of an extraordidary combat between some cuttle fish and a bull. An enormouse pouple, with bright purple eyes and tentacles six feet long, had attacked the quadruped. Throwing its arms around the body, the monster tried to make for the water with its captive. Meanwhile other octopi in large numbers and of great size, swarmed on the shore, which seemed to be alive with their big, round heads. Some of them assisting their comrades, soon like him attacked the bull, dragging it down to the sea. Their quarry, however, made a brave resistance, and succeeded in goring its first foe in the head and belly, and shaking itself free from its embrace. Before it could escape, however, it was firmly held by a still larger monster, while others took solicitous care of the wounded one. The unfortunate beast’s bellowing attracted a crowd of fishermen to the spot. One of these stronger and braver than his fellows, his limbs swayed in straw bandages, and a sharp knife in his hand, boldly rushed to the rescue of the bull and cut through the tenacles which inclosed it. Other poulpes then attacked the fishermen, to whose aid his fellows hastened, and a fierce fight ensued between men and monsters, in which the former were victorious, many of the squids being killed, while the rest escaped into the water. Two of the tentacles wound around the bull were so heavy that one man along could not carry them. One was twelve and the other six feet long; the larger of the two was subsequently boiled in sections at different times an a big kettle. Some years previous to this battle cattle had disappeared in a mysterious manner from the same shore. The fight between the octopi and the bull enlightened the proprietors as to the cause of their loss.
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