ccxlii 



sanitary reasons, unless the last may have been due to any substances 

 swallowed by the lish. Thus at one time the gouramy, Osphromenm olfax, 

 taken from a tank in the Mauritius, was found unfit for human food, when 

 it was discovered that they had been consuming- the filth from below a 

 latrine which opened into it. Hamilton Buchanan observed of the 

 estuary and marine fish, Scdtqphagus argns, that it is "easy of digestion and 

 excellent flavour, but after death it becomes soft and strongly tasted." This 

 fish, however, is as foul a feeder as the last, and is consequently generally 

 rejected as food. The Indian mackerel, Scomber hanagurta, taints very 

 rapidly after death, and not unfrequently sets up gastric irritation, whilst 

 the mullets, Mugilida, are usually unwholesome, unless eaten when quite 

 fresh. The fishes with accessory breathing organs or cavities are those as 

 a rule most esteemed as nourishing by the natives, whether aoanthop- 

 terygiaus or siluroids; thus convalescents in some parts mostly esteem the 

 coie, or climbing' perch, or the siluroid magnr, Clarias magiir ; next 

 perhaps the singi, Saccohranchus fossilis ; whilst the spiny-rayed family 

 of ojihiocephalns likewise hold a high place. In short, it is these fami- 

 lies so peculiar to the tropics which are found to be the most wholesome 

 and invigorating. Munier, nearly a century since, informed Sonuerat that 

 fishes of the marine genus Scarus, commonly known as " parrot fishes," 

 owing to their brilliant colours and bill-like teeth, were not eaten in Bour- 

 bon and the Mauritius between December and April, owing to their 

 unwholesomeness, due, it was supposed, to their consuming large quantities 

 of coral polype. Commerson makes much the same remarks, and observes 

 that it gnaws the coral. It has also been said that fishes which consume 

 the medusae, commonly termed "Portuguese men-of-war," the Sfephan- 

 onia, appear to be rendered unfit for human food, probably consequent 

 upon their acrid qualities. However, fish are found to be poisonous where 

 these polypes abound ; and in other localities where they are also numer- 

 ous, as the Andaman Islands, the fish appear to be eaten with safety. 

 Dr. Hill (Pro., Scien. Asso., Trinidad, 1868) observes theFormigas consti- 

 tute a very warren or vivarium of all kinds of fishes, and the fishes 

 there are poisonous. The sea is very shallow, covered with coral reels, 

 and these again by sea-cucumbers, star-fishes, sea-urchins and sponges. 

 420. Regarding the Siluridm or scaleless fishes as food, rather 



m ., . , , , „ , diverse opinions are held. The Jews were 



The suunda; or scaluless nshes v j. i • t •.!_• i n i 



asfoo d directed in Leviticus, chap. xi, that 



" whatsoever hath no fins, nor scales in the 

 waters, that shall be an abomination unto you." They were only permit- 

 ted to eat " whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas 

 and in the rivers," and this law is likewise generally, but not invariably, 

 observed by the Mahomedans. It is well known that persons of neither 

 of the foregoing religions are to eat the blood which is the life, so they 

 cut the throats of all animals before death, in order to permit it to escape. 

 In Sind, however, the Mahomedans have a tradition that the prophet 

 did this for them in regard to fish, because they die so rapidly after 

 they are removed from the water, and they point to the gill-opening in 

 proof of this having been done, consequently they eat all siluroids which 

 possess well developed ^'ill-openings. In the last paragraph it was observed 

 that the Clarias and Saccohranchus are much esteemed in India for convale- 

 scents, whilsi the Burmese have likewise a great partiality for them in their 



