Chap. 9] PLACES WHERE BITTER FISH ARE FOUND. 9 



known as Surium, appear and give oracular presages, when 

 thrice summoned by the sound of a flute. If they seize the 

 flesh thrown to them with avidity, it is a good omen for the 

 person who consults them ; but if, on the other hand, they 

 flap at it with their tails, it is considered an evil presage. At 

 Hierapolis^ in Syria, the fish in the Lake of Yenus there obey 

 the voice of the officers of the temple : bedecked with orna- 

 ments of gold, they come at their call, fawn upon them while 

 they are scratched, and open their mouths so wide as to admit 

 of the insertion of the hands. 



Off the Kock of Hercules, in the territory of Stabiae" in 

 Campania, the melanuri^^ seize with avidity bread that is thrown 

 to them in the sea, but they will never approach any bait in 

 which there is a hook concealed. 



CHAP. 9. — PLACES WHERE BITTER FISH ARE FOUND, SALT, OR 

 SWEET. 



Nor is it by any means the least surprising fact, that off the 

 island of Pele,*^ the town of Clazomen8D,^° the rock^^ [of 

 Scylla] in Sicily, and in the vicinity of Leptis in Africa,*''* 

 Euboea, and Dyrrhachium,^^ the fish are bitter. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cephallenia, Ampelos, Pares, and the rocks of 

 Delos, the fish are so salt by nature that they might easily be 

 taken to have been pickled in brine. In the harbour, again, 

 of the last-mentioned island, the fish are sweet : differences, 

 all of them, resulting, no doubt, from the diversity^'* of their 

 food. 



Apion says that the largest among the fishes is the sea- 

 pig, ^^ known to the Lacedaemonians as the ^'orthagoriscos;" 



56 The seat of the worship of the half-fish goddess Addirga, Atergatis, 

 Astarte, or Lerceto. See B. v. c. 19. The original names of Hierapolis 

 (the Holy City) were Bambyce and Mabog. 



57 See B. iii. c. 9. 



*s A Greek name signifying "black-tails." See c. 53 of this Book. 

 Holland translates it " the black-tailed ruflfe " or "sea-bream." 



*9 See B. V. c. 38. eo ^ee B. v. c. 31, and B. xxxi. c. 43. 



61 See B. iii. c. 14. « gge B. v. cc. 3, 4. 



63 See B. iii. cc. 16, 26. 



6* Ajasson thinks that this may possibly be true to some small extent. 



65 Identical with the fish called " orbi's," already mentioned in c. 5 of 

 this Book. Ajasson remarks that though these fish have been known to 

 weigh as much as three hundred pounds, there are many others which 

 grow to a larger size, the sturgeon, and the silurus, for instance. 



