THE AQUARIUM, OCTOBER, 1896. 69 
lost their liberty or through neglect of 
the pond keepers. We know from 
Pliny that C. Hirrens at a banquet 
given to Cesar as Dictator could place 
on the table 6,000 muraenas from his 
own ponds. Muraenas could easily be 
tamed and taught to take food out of 
a person’s hand. Croesus, surnamed 
The Wealthy, was so much attached to 
amuraena, which he had raised himself, 
that when it died he shed tears and had 
it buried. We also read an account of 
an answer which Croesus gave to L. 
Domitius, who laughingly expressed 
his astonishment that any one would 
weep over a dead muraena. It might 
perhaps be thought strange, he said, 
that he, Croesus, shed tears over a dead 
muraena, but it was far more strange 
that he, Domitius, did not shed any tears 
over his three dead wives. (Domitius 
had three wives, whom he is reported 
to have poisoned in order to obtain 
their property. ) 
Certain ladies showed great affection 
for muraenas. Thus Antonia, the 
daughter of Drusus, adorned a tame 
muraena with gold rings and bracelets. 
Muraenas eat human flesh, and the 
cruelty of Vedius Pollis in this respect 
seems wellestablished. He placed those 
of his slaves who had been condemned 
to death in his fish pond in such a 
manner that they could not be eaten at 
once, but were gradually torn to pieces 
by the teeth of the muraenas. It is 
said that the muraenas breathes through 
its tail, and therefore dies sooner when 
struck on the tail than when struck 
on the head. 
D. Ambrosius and several other 
ancient writers assert that snakes mate 
with muraenas, and that the latter 
entice the snakes to the seaside by a 
certain peculiar whistling sound. 
Athenaeus does not believe this, and in 
corroboration of his opinion quotes 
from a work on popular superstitions, 
written by Andreas. Muraenas spawn 
all the year around, and of this kind 
the murus, the largest and strongest, 
is of a uniform color very much re- 
sembling that of the larch; so at least 
Aristotle affirms. Pliny calls this kind 
myrinus. There isalsoariver muraena, 
which is much smaller and has only 
one point; and which, according to 
Dorianus, is the same that Athenaeus 
calls gollaria, and I think that Athe- 
naeus must have meant by this smaller 
kind what we call lamprey, and not the 
sea fish. Iresius assures us that the 
flesh of the muraena is not less nourish- 
ing than that of the eel, but on account 
of a certain hardness and moisture it is 
very indigestible. It is, however, much 
prized on account of its delicious 
entrails, with which, as Lampridius 
tells us in his history, Heliogabalus, 
while far from the sea, regaled his 
court and the whole rural population.” 
PEARL CULTURE. 
A pearlis the result of an oyster’s 
effort to remove a source of irritation, 
says the Chicago Record. Ifa grain of 
sand or some other hard substance finds 
its way into the shell the oyster begins 
coating it with nacre, which gives the 
irritating intruder a smooth exterior. 
The oyster deposits over the offending 
object as long as it remains a source of 
irritation, and the Chinese have taken 
advantage of this peculiarity of the 
solitary mollusk, They make little pel- 
lets of earth which has been dried and 
powdered with the juice of camphor 
seeds, and during May and June plant 
these in the oyster. The shell is open- 
ed with a mother-of pearl knife, care 
being taken not to injure the oyster, 
