Myth of the Ship-hold**. 279 



he says, is a little foot and a half long fish which lays hold 

 of ships and causes them to stand still as if rooted in the 

 sea, being held by nothing save the little fish. His story 

 adds nothing to what we already know, but he does one 

 thing which is of great interest, he gives us a quaint 

 figure, which so far as I have been able to find, is the first 

 and only effort to illustrate the myth. It is reproduced as 

 fig. 4 (PI. XV.). And in this connection one is led to wonder 

 why this story, so interesting to these old-time writers, was 

 not also a favourite theme for illustrators, why it has come 

 down to us with but one picture. 



In the ' Annotationes ' of Francisco Massari, published at 

 Basilise in 1537, there are in chapter 35 some three or four 

 pages of data on the Echeneis, but careful perusal shows 

 that this is but a revamping of the ancients with not a single 

 new legend added, so Massari may be passed without further 

 comment. 



In the year 1550 there was published at Lugduni ' Liber I. 

 De Sympathia et Antipathia Rerum ' by Hieronymous 

 Frascatorius, on page 24 of which is the statement that. 

 (i Furthermore it seems to be beyond all doubt that Echeneis 

 is that little fish which we call Remora, which causes to 

 stand still in mid-ocean the ship moved by the force and 

 impetus of the wind " *. 



According to both Gesner and Aldrovandi, there is to be 

 found an account of the ship-holding power of Echeneis in 

 Adam Lonicer's ' Naturalis Historian Opus Novum in Quo 

 Tractatur de Natura/ etc., Frankfurt, 1551. The only 

 edition found in New York is the German translation, which 

 appeared as ' Kreuterbuch ' in 1560. Dr. Lydenberg kindly 

 looked through the 1682 edition of this in the New York 

 Public Library, but could not find any reference to Echeneis. 

 I have not been able to locate another copy. However, in 

 Gesner's ' Historia Animalium,' IV. (1558), and: also in 

 Aldrovandi, there is a considerable quotation from Louicer 

 with reference to Echeneis. Careful study of this, however, 

 shows that no new data are given. 



The account of Edward Wotton (1552) is but a rehash of 

 Aristotle, Pliny, and the other Greek and Roman writers. 

 His one statement worthy of repetition reads '• Let the 

 winds rush and the tempests rage, the Remora dominates 

 the furor, overcomes these great forces, and compels the 

 vessels to stand still, which no chain and anchor have been 



* For a transcript of Frascatorius I am indebted to the courtesy of 

 Mr. Charles Perry Fisher, Librarian of the College of Physicians, 

 Philadelphia. 



