Linda Lemming
The story of the Lemming is a classic case of tu quoque misrepresentation used to save face. One day early in the summer of 1596 a group of a dozen or so Lemmings was playing on the 1500 foot cliffs that fringe the island shoreline. The European ships (as has been mentioned elsewhere, see more in The Little Known History of Gulf [Golf]) deprived of knowledge of the many rocky shoals in the area by a pathological lack of accurate charts, were want to run themselves on the rocks in droves. This particular day, from their vantage point high overhead, the Lemmings watched in spellbound amusement as no less than seven Spanish and English ships in there frenzied race to get to the Cod first, impaled themselves on various underwater rocks and then disintegrated in the sea that hove in upon them. The Lemmings, hysterical with laughter at this momentous display of lack of seamanship failed to notice the rock ledge on which they were standing come loose. All fell to their death.
A few of the surviving fishermen saw the Lemmings fall. After determining among themselves that they were not to blame for the demise of the ships, in a classic manoeuvre to deflect questions about their own reckless actions, the survivors would ever after sidestep the issue, when asked, by relating how they had been witness to the annual suicide of the Lemmings.
Scientists who subsequently went north to study this phenomenon, failed to observe any suicidal Lemmings & concluded that the event must not occur yearly.
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