SEFIAD.E. CUTTLE. 171 



spoilt if an iron knife is used, " becoming tainted thereby, 

 owing to the antipathy which naturally exists between 

 it and iron ;" and * Dalechamps suggests, that this 

 means, " it being the nature of its flesh to cling to the 

 knife." 



The flesh of the loligo, or squid, was highly esteemed 

 by the ancients, and Ephippus recommends the eating 

 of squids and cuttle-fish together. 



" Aud many polypi, with wondrous curls." 



Athen., Deipnosopbists. 



And Sotades, the comic poet, introduces a cook, speak- 

 ing as follows : — 



" To these I added cuttlefish and squills ; 

 A fine dish is the squill when carefully cooked, 

 But the rich cuttlefish is eaten plain ; 

 (Though I did stuff them all with a rich forced-meat 

 Of almost every kind of herb and flower)." 



Bk. vii. c. 41, Athen., Deipnosophists. 



They are still exposed for sale in the bazaars and mar- 

 kets in India. 



With us the squid, or squill, as it is sometimes called 

 at Weymouth, is only used as bait. It is good for catch- 

 ing conger-eels and whiting-pout, also for cod-fishing; 

 but it is also a great enemy to the fisherman, and on the 

 French coast they say that the calmar, as they call it, 

 often tears the fish from their hooks during the night, 

 when they are fishing with lines. The inhabitants of the 

 Basque provinces esteem calmar s highly as food, and call 

 them chipirones, and at Bayonne they are also known by 

 the same name, as well as by that of cornet or comiche. 



In Japan, squids are regularly collected for food, and 

 Mr. Arthur Adams gives, in the ' Zoologist/ p. 7518, an 

 * Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. vi. bk. xxxii. c. 42. 



