ANCIENT HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 33 



Though oysters and other conchiferous molluscs were 

 not disallowed as food for the ancient Jews by any precise 

 definition in the Levitical law, there can be no doubt that 

 they would be regarded as "abominable things." 



M. Dabry de Thersant, in a number of the "China 

 Review," as quoted in the " Flight of the Lapwing," states 

 that artificial oyster-beds were formed in China long before 

 they are known to have existed amongst the Romans, and, 

 while in Europe essays and pamphlets are being written on 

 the theory of the subject, the practical Chinese have been 

 obtaining good results for the last 1800 years, notwith- 

 standing the fact that they have no clear ideas as to the 

 nature of the oyster or its means of reproduction. 



It has been supposed that Homer alludes to oysters in 

 the following lines, where Patroclus insults the charioteer 

 of Hector, as he falls from his chariot: "Ye gods, how 

 active the man is, how gracefully he dives ; if he were 

 anywhere in the fish-producing sea, this fellow might 

 satisfy many diving for oysters." -//. 16, 745-7. But it is 

 very doubtful whether the Greek word tethea denotes 

 oysters ; it occurs nowhere else in Homer, nor does the 

 poet ever make use of the ordinary word for an oyster, 

 namely, ostreon or ostreion. It is true that Athenaeus says 

 that the tethos and the ostreon are the same ; but his asser- 

 tion cannot be reconciled with other passages where the 

 words occur. Thus Archestratus of Syracuse no mean 



j 



authority on everything that relates to fish speaks of 

 Abydos as the best place for ostreia and Chalcedon for 

 tethea, in the very same book : 



" Aenus has mussels fine ; Abydos too 

 Is famous for its oysters ; Parium produces 

 Crabs, the bears of the sea, and Mitylene periwinkles. 

 Ambracia in all kinds of fish abounds, 



B 



