The historian Ovidius Capito went so far as to deny the miracle of their transformation.

He thus begins his "Annals of Penguinia": "A dense obscurity envelopes this history, and it would be no exaggeration to say that it is a tissue of puerile fables and popular tales.

The Penguins claim that they are descended from birds who were baptized by St.Mael and whom God changed into men at the intercession of that glorious apostle.

They hold that, situated at first in the frozen ocean, their island, floating like Delos, was brought to anchor in these heaven-favoured seas, of which it is to-day the queen.

I conclude that this myth is a reminiscence of the ancient migrations of the Penguins." In the following century, which was that of the philosophers, scepticism became still more acute.