402 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



beard, that projects beneath the lower lip. The lutarius, 18 or 

 mud- mullet, is held in the lowest esteem of all. This last is 

 always accompanied 19 by another fish, known as the sargus, 

 and where the mullet stirs up the mud, the other finds aliment 

 for its own sustenance. The mullet that is found on the coast 

 is not 20 highly esteemed, and the most esteemed of all have a 

 strong flavour 21 of shell-fish. Fenestella is of opinion, that 

 this fish received its name of mullet [mullus] from its resem- 

 blance to the colour of the red or mullet-coloured shoes. 22 The 

 mullet spawns three 23 times a year: at all events, the fry 

 makes its appearance that number of times. The masters in 

 gastronomy inform us, that the mullet, while dying, assumes 

 a variety of colours and a succession of shades, and that the 

 hue of the red scales, growing paler and paler, gradually 

 changes, more especially if it is looked at enclosed in glass. 24 



18 Hardouin says that it is larger than the sea-mullet ; and that it dwells 

 in muddy or slimy spots in the vicinity of the sea-shore. 



19 Aristotle., Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5. 



2( ? Probably from the fact of its living in the mud. " Doctors differ " 

 on this point. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says that shore-fish 

 are superior to those caught out at sea ; while Seneca, on the other hand, 

 Nat. Quaest. B. iii. c. 18, says that rock-fish and those caught out at sea 

 are the best. 



21 He would almost seem to imply by this that they feed upon shell-fish : 

 but Hardouin has a note to the effect, that Pliny does not mean that they 

 live on shell-fish, as it would be impossible for them to break the shell 

 to devour the fish within, but only that they have the same flavour as shell- 

 fish. But query as to this explanation. 



22 On the other hand, Isidorus says that the mullet-coloured shoes were 

 so called from the colour of the fish, which, indeed, is most probable. These 

 shoes were made of a kind of red Parthian leather, probably not unlike our 

 morocco leather. Festus seems to say that they were worn in general by 

 all the patricians ; but the passage of Varro which he quotes, only shows 

 that they were worn by the curule magistrates, the consul, praBtor, and cu- 

 ruie redile. 



23 Hence their Greek name, rptyXa, according to Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 

 1. 590. 



24 Seneca has a passage on this subject, Qusest. Nat. B. iii. c. 18, which 

 strongly bespeaks the barbarous tastes of the Romans. He says : " Amul< 

 let even, if just caught, is thought little of, unless it is allowed to die in 

 the hand of your guest. They are carried about enclosed in globes of 

 glass, and their colour is watched as they die, which is changed by the 

 struggles of death into various shades and hues." And again : " There is 

 nothing, you say, more beautiful than the colours of the dying mullet ; as 

 it struggles and breathes forth its life, it is first purple, and then a paleness 

 gradually comes over it; and then, placed us it is between life arid death, 

 an uncurtain hue comes over it." 



