Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

" THE PLATTER-LICKER "—ASELLUS P—COB 2616. The Asellus has been identified as the Gadus merlangus,the " Cod ;" and as the Merluccius vulgaris, the " Hake,"by Scaliger and Rondolet, and by Hardouin with somedoubt.It cannot be the Cod (although Dorion speaks 1 of " theoi^oc which some call the yadog "), because hardly any of theGadidcB, except the Hake, frequent the Mediterranean onaccount of the temperature of the water. Nor can the Asellusbe the Hake, because, while the latter is taken all the year round,Phny 2 and iElian 2 distinctly state that the A sellus hides inthe heat of summer.This assertion, if the 6vog be the same as the Asellus,tallies with, probably indeed derives from, Aristotle's remarkthat it is the only fish that hides itself in a hole in the groundin the hot weather, when the Dogstar rages. ^ The fish, Varroinforms us, is called Asellus from the ashen colour of its scales,resembling that of the coat of an ass.*If there be doubt as to its classification scientifically,there is none gastronomically. Laberius and CorneHus Neposranked it only second to the Acipenser. Ovid {Hal. 131)enters a demurrer against the name given in :" Et tam deformi non dignus nomine asellus."Galen warmly commends the fish for its quality of flesh,and great nutritive power ;in these respects, indeed, he placesthe Mullet, the Lupus, and Sole far below. Xenocrates, whosedictum usually differs from his successor, depreciates it, asdoes " nobiUs ille helluo " Archestratus, whose palate pronouncedthe flesh " spongy."A sovereign remedy for fever and ague are " the small stonesfound in the head of the Asellus, when the moon is full, andattached in hnen to the patient's body " «!7. The MurcBna— M. serpens or helena— (frequently butquite erroneously called the " Lamprey "),with whose taming,1 Dorion, ap. Athen., VII. 99. Dorion was the author of a treatise muchused by Athenaeus.2 IX. 25 ; N. H.. IX. 36.3 Athen.. VII. 99. Cf. Oppian, I. 151* De Ling. Lat., 5.6 Phny, XXXII. 38.