-418 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book IX. 



it shifts from side to side, sometimes carrying it on the right, 

 and sometimes on the left. It swims obliquely, 30 with the 

 head on one side, which is of surprising hardness while the 

 animal is alive, being puffed out with air. 31 In addition to 

 this, they have cavities 32 dispersed throughout the claws, 

 by means of which, through suction, they can adhere to 

 objects ; which they hold, with the head upwards, so tightly, 

 that they cannot be torn away. They cannot attach them- 

 selves, however, to the bottom of the sea, and their reten- 

 tive powers are weaker in the larger ones. These are the 

 only 33 soft fish that come on dry land, and then only where 

 the surface is rugged : a smooth surface they will not come 

 near. They feed upon the flesh of shell- fish, the shells of 

 which they can easily break in the embrace of their arms : 

 hence it is that their retreat may be easily detected by the pieces 

 of shell which lie before it. Although, in other respects, this 

 is looked upon as a remarkably stupid kind of animal, so much 

 so, that it will swim towards the hand of a man, to a certain 

 extent in its own domestic matters it manifests considerable 

 intelligence. It carries its prey to its home, and after eating 

 all the flesh, throws out the debris, and then pursues such 

 small fish as may chance to swim towards them. It also 

 changes its colour 34 according to the aspect of the place where 

 it is, and more especially when it is alarmed. The notion is 

 entirely unfounded that it gnaws 35 its own arms ; for it is from 

 the congers that this mischance befalls it ; but it is no other 



fringed with the so-called feet, cannot be said to be distinguished into an 

 upper and lower side. 



30 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iy. c. 2, says that the animal is obliged to 

 do so, on account of the situation of the eyes. 



31 But Aristotle says, KaOcnrtp ifjLTre^vffrjfisvriv^ "as though it were 

 puffed out with air." 



32 " Acetabulis." The acetabulum was properly a vinegar cruet, in 

 shape resembling an inverted cone ; from a supposed similarity in the 

 appearance, it is here applied to the suckers of the polypus. The Greek 

 name is KoriAjjdojj/. 



33 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 59. 



34 Cuvier says, that the changes of colour of the skin of the polypus 

 are continual, and succeed each other with an extreme rapidity ; but that 

 it has not been observed, any more than the chameleon, to take the colour 

 of objects in its vicinity. 



35 ^ This notion is mentioned by Athenaeus, Pherecrates, Alcaeus, Hesiod, 

 Oppian, and JElian. 



