24 LITERATURE OF SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 



(Latin remora), Oppian well describes the "sucking- 

 fish":— 



" Slender his shape, his length a cubit ends, 

 No beauteous spot the gloomy race commends : 

 An eel-like clinging kind, of dusky looks. 

 His jaws display tenacious rows of hooks ; 

 The sucking fish beneath, with secret chains 

 Within his teeth, the sailing ship detains." 



The " cramp-fish " of the Greeks, or torpedo of the 

 moderns, must have been an awkward customer to tackle, 

 if Oppian's description be correct : — 



" The cramp-fish when the pungent pain alarms, 

 Exerts his magic pow'rs and passion'd charms, 

 Clings round the line, and bids th' embrace infuse 

 From fertile cells comprest his subtil juice, 

 Th' aspiring tide its restless volume rears, 

 Rolls up the steep ascent of slipp'ry hairs. 

 Then down the rod with easy motion slides, 

 And entering in the fisher's hand subsides. 

 On every point an icy stiffness steals. 

 The flowing spirits bind, and blood congeals. 

 Down drops the rod dismist, and floating lies. 

 Drawn captive in its turn, the fish's prize." 



Some of Oppian's best bits are his animated descriptions 

 of fish sea-fights, in which the combatants are as intensely- 

 personified as his Homeric Greeks and Trojans in their 

 hand-to-hand combats on the banks of the Simois and 

 Scamander. But unlike mortal heroes, the aqueous bellig- 

 erents of Oppian pull each other to pieces without any 

 responsibility on their part or shock to moral sense on 



ours : — 



" Unwise we blame the rage of warring fish, 

 Who urged by hunger must supply the wish ; 

 Whilst cruel man, to whom his ready food 

 Kind earth affords, yet thirsts for human blood." 



From Oppian we gather that the ancients were well 



