Delphi Complete Works of Pliny the Elder

by Pliny the Elder

  I have now abundantly treated of an art, by means of which men, just as much as women, have an idea that their appearance may be set off to the greatest possible advantage.

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  CHAP. 66. (42.)

  THE PINNA, AND THE PINNOTHERES.

  Belonging to the shell-fish tribe there is the pinna also: it is found in slimy spots, always lying upright, and never without a companion, which some writers call the pinnotheres, and others, again, pinnophylax, being a small kind of shrimp, or else a parasitical crab. The pinna, which is destitute of sight, opens its shell, and in so doing exposes its body within to the attacks of the small fish, which immediately rush upon it, and finding that they can do so with impunity, become bolder and bolder, till at last they quite fill the shell. The pinnotheres, looking out for the opportunity, gives notice to the pinna at the critical moment by a gentle bite, upon which the other instantly closes its shell, and so kills whatever it has caught there; after which, it divides the spoil with its companion.

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  CHAP. 67.

  THE SENSITIVENESS OF WATER ANIMALS; THE TORPEDO, THE PASTINACA, THE SCOLOPENDRA, THE GLANIS, AND THE RAM-FISH.

  Upon reflecting on such facts as these, I am the more inclined to wonder at the circumstance that some persons have been found who were of opinion that the water animals are devoid of all sense. The torpedo is very well aware of the extent of its own powers, and that, too, although it experiences no benumbing effects from them itself. Lying concealed in the mud, it awaits the approach of the fish, and, at the moment that they are swimming above in supposed security, communicates the shock, and instantly darts upon them: there is no delicate morsel in existence that is preferred to the liver of this fish. And no less wonderful, too, is the shrewdness manifested by the sea-frog, which is known by us as the “fisher.” Stirring up the mud, it protrudes from the surface two little horns, which project from beneath the eyes, and so attracts the small fish which are sporting around it, until at last they approach so close that it is able to seize them. In a similar manner, too, the squatina and the rhombus conceal themselves, but extend their fins, which, as they move to and fro, resemble little worms; the ray also does the same. The pastinaca, too, lies lurking in ambush, and pierces the fish as they pass with the sting with which it is armed. Another proof of instinctive shrewdness is the fact, that although the ray is the very slowest of all the fish in its movements, it is found with the mullet in its belly, which is the swiftest of them all.

  (43.) The scolopendra, which bears a strong resemblance to the land insect which we call a centipede, if it chances to swallow a hook, will vomit forth all its intestines, until it has disengaged itself, after which it will suck them in again. The sea-fox too, when exposed to a similar peril, goes on swallowing the line until it meets with a weak part of it, and then with its teeth snaps it asunder with the greatest ease. The fish called the glanis is more cautious; it bites at the hooks from behind, and does not swallow them, but only strips them of the bait.

  (44.) The sea-ram commits its ravages just like a wary robber; at one time it will lurk in the shadow of some large vessel that is lying out at sea, and wait for any one who may be tempted to swim; while at another, it will raise its head from the surface of the water, survey the fishermen’s boats, and then slily swim towards them and sink them.

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  CHAP. 68. (45.)

  BODIES WHICH HAVE A THIRD NATURE, THAT OF THE ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE COMBINED-THE SEA-NETTLE.

  Indeed, for my own part, I am strongly of opinion that there is sense existing in those bodies which have the nature of neither animals nor vegetables, but a third which partakes of them both: — sea-nettles and sponges, I mean. The sea-nettle wanders to and fro by night, and at night changes its locality. These creatures are by nature a sort of fleshy branch, and are nurtured upon flesh. They have the power of producing an itching, smarting pain, just like that caused by the nettle found on land. For the purpose of seeking its prey, it contracts and stiffens itself to the utmost possible extent, and then, as a small fish swims past, it will suddenly spread out its branches, and so seize and devour it. At another time it will assume the appearance of being quite withered away, and let itself be tossed to and fro by the waves like a piece of sea-weed, until it happens to touch a fish. The moment it does so, the fish goes to rub itself against a rock, to get rid of the itching; immediately upon which, the nettle pounces upon it. By night also it is on the look-out for scallops and sea-urchins. When it perceives a hand approaching it, it instantly changes its colour, and contracts itself; when touched it produces a burning sensation, and if ever so short a time is afforded, makes its escape. Its mouth is situate, it is said, at the root or lower part, and the excrements are discharged by a small canal situated above.

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  CHAP. 69.

  SPONGES; THE VARIOUS KINDS OF THEM, AND WHERE THEY ARE PRODUCED: PROOFS THAT THEY ARE GIFTED WITH LIFE BY NATURE.

  We find three kinds of sponges mentioned; the first are thick, very hard, and rough, and are called “tragi:” the second, are thick, and much softer, and are called “mani;” of the third, being fine and of a closer texture, tents for sores are made; this last is known as “Achillium.” All of these sponges grow on rocks, and feed upon shell-and other fish, and slime. It would appear that these creatures, too, have some intelligence; for as soon as ever they feel the hand about to tear them off, they contract themselves, and are separated with much greater difficulty: they do the same also when the waves buffet them to and fro. The small shells that are found in them, clearly show that they live upon food: about Torone it is even said that they will survive after they have been detached, and that they grow again from the roots which have been left adhering to the rock. They leave a colour similar to that of blood upon the rock from which they have been detached, and those more especially which are produced in the Syrtes of Africa.

  The manos is the one that grows to the largest size, but the softest of all are those found in the vicinity of Lycia. Where the sea is deep and calm, they are more particularly soft, while those which are found in the Hellespont are rough, and those in the vicinity of Malea coarse. When lying in places exposed to the sun, they become putrid: hence it is that those which are found in deep water are the best. While they are alive, they are of the same blackish colour that they are when saturated with water. They adhere to the rock not by one part only, nor yet by the whole body: and within them there are a number of empty tubes, generally four or five in number, by means of which, it is thought, they take their food. There are other tubes also, but these are closed at the upper extremity; and a sort of membrane is supposed to be spread beneath the roots by which they adhere. It is well known that sponges are very long-lived. The most inferior kind of all are those which are called “aplysiæ,” because it is impossible to clean them: these have large tubes, while the other parts of them are thick and coarse.

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  CHAP. 70. (46.)

  DOG-FISH.

  Vast numbers of dog-fish infest the seas in the vicinity of the sponges, to the great peril of those who dive for them. These persons say that a sort of dense cloud gradually thickens over their heads, bearing the resemblance of some kind of animal like a flat-fish, and that, pressing downward upon them, it prevents them from returning to the surface. It is for this reason that they carry stilettos with them, which are very sharp at the point, and attached to them by strings; for if they did not pierce the object with the help of these, it could not be got rid of. This, however, is entirely the result, in my opinion, of the darkness and their own fears; for no person has ever yet been able to find, among living creatures, the fish-cloud or the fish-fog, the name which they give to this enemy of theirs.

  The divers, however, have terrible combats with the dogfish, which attack with avidity the groin, the heels, and all the whiter parts of the body. The only means
of ensuring safety, is to go boldly to meet them, and so, by taking the initiative, strike them with alarm: for, in fact, this animal is just as frightened at man, as man is at it; and they are on quite an equal footing when beneath the water. But the moment the diver has reached the surface, the danger is much more imminent; for he loses the power of boldly meeting his adversary while he is endeavouring to make his way out of the water, and his only chance of safety is in his companions, who draw him along by a cord that is fastened under his shoulders. While he is engaging with the enemy, he keeps pulling this cord with his left hand, according as there may be any sign of immediate peril, while with the right he wields the stiletto, which he is using in his defence. At first they draw him along at a moderate pace, but as soon as ever they have got him close to the ship, if they do not whip him out in an instant, with the greatest possible celerity, they see him snapped asunder; and many a time, too, the diver, even when already drawn out, is dragged from their hands, through neglecting to aid the efforts of those who are assisting him, by rolling up his body in the shape of a ball. The others, it is true, are in the meantime brandishing their pronged fish-spears; but the monster has the craftiness to place himself beneath the ship, and so wage the warfare in safety. Consequently, every possible care is taked by the divers to look out for the approach of this enemy.

  (47.) It is the surest sign of safety to see flat-fish, which never frequent the spots where these noxious monsters are found: and it is for this reason that the divers call them sacred.

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  CHAP. 71.

  FISHES WHICH ARE ENCLOSED IN A STONY SHELL — SEA ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO SENSATION — OTHER ANIMALS WHICH LIVE IN THE MUD.

  Those animals, however, it must be admitted, which lie enclosed in a stony shell, have no sensation whatever — such as the oyster, for instance. Many, again, have the same nature as vegetables; such as the holothuria, the pulmones, and the sea-stars. Indeed, I may say that there is no land produc- tion which has not its like in the sea; no, not even those insects which frequent our public-houses in summer, and are so trouble- some with their nimble leaps, nor yet those which more especially make the human hair their place of refuge; for these are often drawn up in a mass collected around the bait. This, too, is supposed to be the reason why the sleep of fish is sometimes so troubled in the night. Upon some fish, indeed, these animals breed as parasites: among these, we find the fish known as the chalcis.

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  CHAP. 72. (48.)

  VENOMOUS SEA-ANIMALS.

  Nor yet are dire and venomous substances found wanting in the sea: such, for instance, as the sea-hare of the Indian seas, which is even poisonous by the very touch, and immediately produces vomiting and disarrangement of the stomach. In our seas it has the appearance of a shapeless mass, and only resembles the hare in colour; in India it resembles it in its larger size, and in its hair, which is only somewhat coarser: there it is never taken alive. An equally deadly animal is the sea-spider, which is especially dangerous for a sting which it has on the back: but there is nothing that is more to be dreaded than the sting which protrudes from the tail of the trygon, by our people known as the pastinaca, a weapon five inches in length. Fixing this in the root of a tree, the fish is able to kill it; it can pierce armour too, just as though with an arrow, and to the strength of iron it adds all the corrosive qualities of poison.

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  CHAP. 73. (49.)

  THE MALADIES OF FISHES.

  We do not find it stated that all kinds of fishes are subject to epizoötic diseases, like other animals of a wild nature: but it is evidently the fact that individuals among them are attacked by maladies, from the emaciated appearance that many present, while at the same moment others of the same species are taken quite remarkable for their fatness.

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  CHAP. 74. (50.)

  THE GENERATION OF FISHES.

  The curiosity and wonder which have been excited in mankind by this subject, will not allow me any longer to defer giving an account of the generation of these animals. Fishes couple by rubbing their bellies against one another; an operation, however, that is performed with such extraordinary celerity as to escape the sight. Dolphins also, and other animals of the cetaceous kind, couple in a similar manner, though the time occupied in so doing is somewhat longer. The female fish, at the season for coupling, follows the male, and strikes against its belly with its muzzle; while the male in its turn, when the female is about to spawn, follows it and devours the eggs. But with them, the simple act of coupling is not sufficient for the purposes of reproduction; it is necessary for the male to pass among the eggs which the female has produced, in order to sprinkle them with its vitalizing fluid. This does not, however, reach all the eggs out of so vast a multitude; indeed, if it did, the seas and lakes would soon be filled, seeing that each female produces these eggs in quantities innumerable.

  (51.) The eggs of fishes grow in the sea; some of them with the greatest rapidity, those of the muræna, for instance; others, again, somewhat more slowly. Those among the flat fishes, whose tails or stings are not in the way, as well as those of the turtle kind, couple the one upon the other: the polypus by attaching one of its feelers to the nostrils of the female, the sæpia and loligo, by means of the tongue; uniting the arms, they then swim contrary ways; these last also bring forth at the mouth. The polypi, however, couple with the head downwards towards the ground, while the rest of the soft fish couple backwards in the same manner as the dog; cray-fish and shrimps do the same, and crabs employ the mouth.

  Frogs leap the one upon the other, the male with its forefeet clasping the armpits of the female, and with its hinder ones the haunches. The female produces tiny pieces of black flesh, which are known by the name of gyrini, and are only to be distinguished by the eyes and tail; very soon, however, the feet are developed, and the tail, becoming bifurcate, forms the hind legs. It is a most singular thing, but, after a life of six months’ duration, frogs melt away into slime, though no one ever sees how it is done; after which they come to life again in the water during the spring, just as they were before. This is effected by some occult operation of Nature, and happens regularly every year.

  Mussels, also, and scallops are produced in the sand by the spontaneous operations of nature. Those which have a harder shell, such as the murex and the purple, are formed from a viscous fluid like saliva, just as gnats are produced from liquids turned sour, and the fish called the apua, “from the foam of the sea when warm, after the fall of a shower.

  Those fish, again, which are covered with a stony coat, such as the oyster, are produced from mud in a putrid state, or else from the foam that has collected around ships which have been lying for a long time in the same position, about posts driven into the earth, and more especially around logs of wood. It has been discovered, of late years, in the oyster — Beds, that the animal discharges an impregnating liquid, which has the appearance of milk. Eels, again, rub themselves against rocks, upon which, the particles which they thus scrape from off their bodies come to life, such being their only means of reproduction. The various kinds of fishes do not couple out of their own kind, with the exception of the squatina and the ray. The fish that is produced from the union of these two, resembles a ray in the fore part, and bears a name among the Greeks compounded of the two.

  Certain animals are produced only at certain seasons of the year, both in water and on the land, such, for instance, as scallops, snails, and leeches, in the spring, which also disappear at stated periods. Among fishes, the wolf-fish and the trichias bring forth twice in the year, as also do all kinds of rock-fish; the mullet and the chalcis thrice in the year, the cyprinus six times, the scorpæna twice, and the sargus in spring and autumn. Among the flat-fish, the squatina brings forth twice a year, being the only one that does so at the setting of the Vergiliæ in autumn. Most fish spawn in the three months of April, May, and June. The salpa brings
forth in the autumn, the sargus, the torpedo, and the squalus about the time of the autumnal equinox. The soft fishes bring forth in spring, the sæpia every month in the year; its eggs adhere together with a kind of black glutinous substance, in appearance like a bunch of grapes, and the male is very careful to go among them and breathe upon them, as otherwise they would be barren. The polypi couple in winter, and produce eggs in the spring twisted in spiral clusters, in a similar manner to the tendrils of the vine; and so remarkably prolific are they, that when the animal is killed in a state of pregnancy, the cavities of the head are quite unable to contain the multitude of eggs enclosed therein. They bring forth these eggs at the fiftieth day, but in consequence of the vast number of them, great multitudes perish. Cray-fish, and other sea-animals with a thinner crust, lay their eggs one upon the other, and then sit upon them. The female polypus sometimes sits upon its eggs, and at other times closes the entrance of its retreat by spreading out its feelers, interlaced like a net. The sæpia brings forth on dry land, among reeds or such sea-weed as it may find growing there, and hatches its eggs on the fifteenth day. The loligo produces its eggs out at sea, clustered together like those of the sæpia. The purple, the murex, and other fishes of the same kind, bring forth in the spring. Sea-urchins have their eggs at full moon during the winter; sea-snails also are produced during the winter season.