8 plint's natural history. [Book XXXIL 



CHAP. 6. — MARVELLOUS PROPERTIES BELONGllfG TO CERTAIN 

 FISHES. 



Trebius l^iger informs us that whenever the loligo*^ is seen 

 darting above the surface of the vrater, it portends a change 

 of weather : that the xiphias/^ or, in other words, the sword- 

 fish, has a sharp-pointed muzzle, with which it is able to pierce 

 the sides of a ship and send it to the bottom : instances of 

 which have been known near a place in Mauritania, known as 

 Cotte, not far from the river Lixus.^° He says, too, that the 

 loligo sometimes darts above the surface, in such vast numbers, 

 as to sink the ships upon which they fall. 



CHAP. 7. PLACES WHERE PISH EAT FROM THE HAND. 



At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the 

 fish eat" from the hand : but the stories of this nature, told 

 with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes 

 formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves ; that at Elorus, a 

 fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse. 

 In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda," there are eels 

 which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings,^^ it is said. The 

 same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men's Temple^* there ; and 

 at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already men- 

 tioned.^^ 



CHAP. 8. PLACES WHERE FISH RECOGNIZE THE HUMAN VOICE. 



ORACULAR RESPONSES GIVEN BY FISH. 



At Myra, too, in Lycia, the fish in the Fountain of Apollo, 



^3 See B. ix. cc. 44, 45, and B. xviii. c. 87. 



*5 See B. ix. cc. 1, 21 and c. 53 of the present Book. There are two.va- 

 rieties cf it, the Xiphias gladius of Bloch and Lacepede, and the 

 Xipbias machaera of Shaw. 



50 See B. v. c, 1. 



51 Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fish- 

 ponds of Baiffi, where the Emperor's fish were in the habit of making 

 their appearance when called by name. 



^' A village of Caria, celebrated for its sanctuary of Zeus Stratios. 

 ^lian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 30, says that there was a spring of clear 

 water, within the sanctuary, which contained fish with golden necklaces and 

 rings. 



5^ " Inaures." He probably means ornaments suspended from the 

 gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done. 



5i " Senum delubrum." ^lian speaks of tame fish in the Old Men's 

 Harbour (Kifii^i') at Chios. 



" In B. xxii. c. 22. 



