![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynhefarOk, so I'm reading a work written back in 15th century. The author has a tendency to extremely florid description and it's often times difficult to figure out exactly what he means. Tonight I came across the following sentence, as part of the description of a beach:
"There was also abundant evidence of the fragrant coitus of monstrous whales, brought up by the fruitful tides."
WTF? Ok, am I reading this right? Is he talking about finding *whale sperm* on the beach? Am I missing something here? I don't know much about cetacean sexual habits but I can't imagine much 'evidence' washes up on beaches.
The only thing I can think of that he might mean is ambergris, which does come from whales, but is definitely not related to coitus, being instead something similar to a gall stone.
"There was also abundant evidence of the fragrant coitus of monstrous whales, brought up by the fruitful tides."
WTF? Ok, am I reading this right? Is he talking about finding *whale sperm* on the beach? Am I missing something here? I don't know much about cetacean sexual habits but I can't imagine much 'evidence' washes up on beaches.
The only thing I can think of that he might mean is ambergris, which does come from whales, but is definitely not related to coitus, being instead something similar to a gall stone.
