From a distance looking like the squarish head of a cow with short horns protruding, models of a male and female shachi with their flukes in the air face each other across the ridge of the highest roof of the Japanese castle. The most famous of these charms tops the castle in Nagoya. They were made in 1959 to replace those destroyed with the castle during the second world war. They are made of copper, overlaid with 560 scales of 18-karat gold, at a cost of $78,000.

Vision is not the whale’s outstanding characteristic. To “see,” the whale depends largely on his ears, as does the bat. The ears are located behind the eyes, though not visible to the casual observer. A unique system of air sacs does double duty. They act as sound insulators and also adjust to the outside pressure by an inflow and outflow of blood. Sounds entering the outer ear strike the eardrum and are carried across to the inner ear. En route the arrangement of bones in the middle ear causes them to be highly amplified. Truly an invention of the One who created those great sea monsters!

Another built-in safety provision of the whale comes into play when pressure is suddenly released as the whale surfaces. Man in such circumstances, exposed to such change in pressure, has to avoid “the bends,” a condition brought about by the formation of nitrogen bubbles in the blood and tissues. The whale is marvelously protected against “the bends.”