THE MURRY. 229 
from rocks, congers hide themselves by burrowing in the 
ground, where it is customary on some parts of the coast of 
France to employ dogs in their search. In spite of its tough 
flesh and exceedingly nauseous smell, the conger was highly 
esteemed by Greek epicures, and in England in the time of 
the Henrys considered an article of food fit fora king. Thus, 
the Prince and Poins, according to Falstaff's account, found 
amongst other reasons for their companionship this one: that 
both of them were fond of conger and fennel sauce. In our 
times its flesh, though banished from all aristocratic tables, 
meets a ready sale at a low price among the poorer classes. In 
the Isle of Man the conger may be said to take the place of 
the poor man’s pig; it is his bacon, which he would find diffi- 
cult to save if it were not for these large eels, which are caught 
in great abundance, and sold at the rate of 2d. or 3d. per Ib. 
The Manx men split the congers, and then salt them and 
hang them up to dry on their cottage walls, where they do not 
exactly contribute to perfume the gale. 
The Murry or Murena differs from the common eel by the 
want of pectoral fins, and its beautifully-marked skin. It is 
said to live with equal facility in fresh or salt water, though 
generally found at sea, and it is as common in the Pacific as it 
is in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The only specimen on 
record as a British fish was caught by a fisherman of Polperro, 
October 8, 1834; its length was four feet four inches. The 
murena has acquired a kind of historical celebrity from the 
strange fondness with which it was cherished by the Romans, 
who preserved large quantities of them in their numerous 
vivaria, as we do the lustrous gold-fish in the water-basins of 
our gardens. <A certain Cajus Hirrius, who lived in the time 
of Julius Cesar, was the first that introduced the fashion, which 
soon became a passion among the wealthy senators and knights 
of the imperial city, who used to deck their especial pets with 
all kinds of ornaments. The celebrated orator, Hortensius, the 
rival of Cicero, had a piscina at Bauli, on the gulf of Baia, 
where he took great delight in a favourite murry that would 
come at his call and feed from his hand. When the creature 
died, he was unable to stop his tears; and another celebrated 
Roman, L. Licinius Crassus, appears to have had an equally 
tender heart, for he, too, wept at the death of his fishy darling, 
R 
