Chap. 41.] FISHES. 413 



gress is impeded, and that it is from this circumstance that it 

 takes its name. 3 For this reason, also, it has a disgraceful 

 repute, as being employed in love philtres, 3 and for the pur- 

 pose of retarding judgments and legal proceedings evil pro- 

 perties, which are only compensated by a single merit that it 

 possesses it is good for staying fluxes of the womb in preg- 

 nant women, and preserves the foetus up to birth : it is never 

 used, however, for food. 4 Aristotle 5 is of opinion that this fish 

 has feet, so strong is the resemblance, by reason of the form and 

 position of the fins. 



Mucianus speaks of a murex 6 of larger size than the purple, 

 with a head that is neither rough nor round ; and the shell 

 of which is single, and falls in folds on either side. 7 He tells ' 

 us, also, that some of these creatures once attached themselves 

 to a ship freighted with children 8 of noble birth, who were 

 being sent by Periander for the purpose of being castrated, 

 and that they stopped its course in full sail ; and he further 



2 'A?r6 TOV *xtiv vijaf. "From holding back ships." 



3 Used for the purpose of bringing back lost love, or preventing incon- 

 ptancy. 



4 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B, ii. c. 17. 



5 Hardouin says that it is very possible that Aristotle may have written, 

 to this effect in some one of the fifty hooks of his that have perished, hut that 

 such is not the case in his account given of this fish in his Hist. Anim. B. 

 ii. c. 17, for there he expressly says, " There are some people that say this 

 fish has feet, whereas it has none at all ; but they are deceived by the fins, 

 which bear a resemblance to feet." Cuvier says he cannot see in what way 

 the fins of the remora, or sucking-fish, resemble feet, any more than those 

 belonging to any other fish. 



6 Cuvier says, that the shell-fish to which Pliny here ascribes a power 

 similar to that of the remora, is, if we may judge from his description of 

 it, of the genus called Cypraea, and has very little doubt that its peculiar 

 form caused its consecration to Venus, fully as much as its supposed mi- 

 raculous powers. He also remarks that Hardouin, in his Note upon this 

 passage, supposes an impossibility, in suggesting that the lips of this shell- 

 fish can bite the sides of a ship ; these lips or edges being hard and im- 

 moveable. For some curious particulars as to the peculiar form of some 

 kinds of Cyprsea, or cowry, and why they more especially attracted atten- 

 tion, and were held sacred to Venus, see the discussion on them, in the 

 Defence made by Apuleius against the charge of sorcery, which was brought 

 against him. 



7 Rondelet, B. xiii. c. 12, says that this kind of shell was formerly used 

 for the purpose of smoothing; paper. 



8 Herodotus tells us, B. iii. c. 48, that these were 300 boys of noble 

 families of the Corey raeans, and that they were being sent from Periander 

 of Corinth, to Alyattes, king of Sardes. 



