SEPIADiE. CUTTLE. 247 



it well with a stick before cooking it; and at Mar- 

 seilles the fishermen beat them with a reed, until it is 

 broken, to make them tender. This is an ancient 

 custom, for Aristophanes in his ' Dedalus ' says, " It is 

 what is called being beaten like a cuttlefish to make it 

 tender."* It is also stated that the Greeks are careful 

 to drag it for some time upon a stone, holding it by 

 the opening in the body. The flesh is said to have a 

 peculiar taste, consequently that of the cuttle-fish and 

 calmar (loligo) is preferred. At Naples, shellfish mer- 

 chants of Sta. Lucia sell them ready cooked, t At 

 Venice, Octopi were sold ready boiled, and taken hot 

 from the cauldron. J I have seen them in the market 

 at Palma, Majorca, where they are called u Pop." 



These Octopods, called Octopodia by the modern 

 Greeks, are regularly exposed for sale in the markets 

 of Smyrna, as they are in the bazaars in India; and 

 on the coast of the Red Sea the inhabitants fish up a 

 great quantity of Poiilps, which they both eat and 

 sell.§ The North American Indians are also partial to 

 them. 



Plato, the comic writer, says : — 



" Good-sized polypus in season 



Should be boiled, -to roast them's treason, 

 But if early, and not big, 



Koast them ; boil'd ain't worth a fig." 



M. Verany gives the following description of it : — 

 " The common Poiilp (the Palpo of the Italians) is 

 scattered throughout the Mediterranean, and is found 

 on the coast of the Atlantic at the Canaries. According 



* Ozenne. f See notes, ' Life in Normandy.' 



% i The World, beyond the Esterelles,' by A. W. Buekland. § U/enue. 



