"THE MANNA OF THE MEDITERRANEAN" loi 



" Delphinus veterum cordibus atqtie animis se insinuavit, 

 thynnus gulis atque veniriculis." ^ 



The annual campaign of the Tunny fishing, lasting from 

 May 15 to Oct. 25, was based on a regular and thorough organisa- 

 tion. All the boats of a given section of the coast acted 

 under the orders of an elected Captain, whose word was law. 



Descriptions of fishing for Tunny and Pelamyde — the 

 name given to the young Tunny from his habit of burying 

 himself in the mud {irriXio fxmiv)," a derivation often attributed 

 to Aristotle, see //. ^., VIII. 15, or of herding together [iri\uv 

 ana) according to Plutarch — may be found in Aristotle, N. H., 

 IV. 10, and VIII. 15, in Pliny, H. N., IX. 53, in ^lian, de nat. 

 an., XV. 5 and 6, and in Oppian, hal, IV. 531 ff. The story 

 by the last of the Thracians piercing and taking myriads 

 of mutilated Pelamydes from the mud, in which they have 

 for warmth ensconced themselves, merits reading if only for 

 his indignant burst : 



" The various Tortures of the bleeding Shoal 

 Command a Pity from the stoutest Soul." ^ 



Aristophanes {Hipp., 313) compares Cleon to the watch 

 posted on a cliff or height to signal the advent of the Tunnies, 

 a position (as Theocritus (III. 26) and Oppian {hal., IV. 637) 

 show), very similar to that of the " Hooer " in the pilchard 

 fishery of Cornwall at the present day. 



These look-outs were frequently artificial. ^Elian, de nat. 

 an., XV. 5, describes a scaffolding consisting of two fir trees 

 between which many cross pieces were fastened. The long 



1 Paulus Rhode, Thynnorum Capiura (Lipsiae, 1890). Had his exhaustive 

 monograph come to hand earUer, this notice would have been worthier, and 

 much time spent on Aristotle, Oppian, etc., have been saved. 



* The real derivation of TrriKafivs, which was probably a pre-Hellenic 

 word, seems unknown : see fe. Boisacq, Dictionnaire Etymologique de la langue 

 grecque (Paris, 1913), p. 779. 



* Their method was to let down by a rope from the boats blocks of wood 

 (heavily weighted with lead) to which were attached great spikes and hooks, 

 which on reaching the bottom were drawn to and fro, with the result that 

 " here gasping Heads confess the killing Smart, | There bleeds a Tail, which 

 quivers round the Dart." Cf. a fragment from Menander's The Fisherman, 

 frag. 12 in the Frag, comicor. Graec, IV. 77, Meineke, " The muddy sea which 

 nourishes the great Tunny." Sophron's Tunnyfisher seems the earliest mime, 

 where this fish figures. 



