Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

!^FOOD, VOICE, SLEEP, LOYALTY OF SCARUS 165But Aristotle (and, of course, Pliny) hold that most, perhapsall, fish do sleep, even if their eyelids are not closed : at anyrate Tunnies and all flatfish do, while Pliny (X. 97) goes asfar as asserting that " Dolphins and whales can be heard to"snore !(E)Has plain, not sharp or jagged, teeth,(F) Never deserts his fellow fish. If he have swallowed abait, his friends flock around him and liberate him by bitingthe line in two.If he be caught in trap or weel, they approachingvery delicately give the prisoner the choice of (a) grippingwith his teeth a tail " by which he is dragged through the meshof twigs," or (b) of pushing through his own tail, which they(outside) seize, and pull him through the weel backwards—thus avoiding damage from the twigs to the eyes of thecaptive. 2This devotion to his imprisoned fellow was turned to goodaccount by fishermen. Fastening a hook in the jaw of andtrailing a net behind a female scarus (preferably alive) theysecured large catches by dropping the lead, which reversed thenet and enmeshed the would-be rescuers. With the seed ofthe coriander Scari are taken " with a vengeance !iElian (I. 4) concludes a similar story, probably purloinedfrom Oppian, for he was an adept in picking up unconsideredand unacknowledged trifles, with, " These things do they, asmen do : but to do loving-kindness are they born, not taught " ;which demonstrates that the invaluable Scarus provides men,not only with a menu, but also a moral" ^only English translation of Athenseus (by C. D.Yonge) is made to say (VII. 113)," The Scarus is the only fish which never sleeps." If Yonge had been faithfulto the text (Schweighauser's) which he expressly states he had adopted, hewould have omitted the ov, because it is in brackets and the editor expresslyputs against it the note " Deest vulgo negativa particula," and his accompanyingLatin translation is " unum hunc ex omnibus piscibus dormire." Kaibel(Leipzig, 1887) also brackets the ov, while Dindorf (1827) ^^^ ^o ""> bracketedor other.1 Aristotle, N. H., II. 13; PHny, XI. 61. Another instance of the carelessnessof Athenaeus—induced perhaps by his omnivorous reading—is to befound in the first line of VII. 113, " The Scarus, Aristotle says, has sharp orjagged teeth," whereas a reference to N. H., II. 13, discloses that all fish exceptthe scarus have sharp or jagged teeth, a statement which is confirmed byRondolet.2 Cf. Opp., IV. 40-64 ; PHny. XXXII. 5 ; and Ovid, Hal., 9 fE.8 iElian, N. H., 12, 42.