Ai-PEKDIX. 301 



laid in wait for the nfe of one or all, it could not easily 

 escape their observation ; and from these circumstances we 

 may manifestly derive the origin of those fables and narra 

 tives in which the opinions of animals are compared with 

 the life and manner of human beings, such as the simple 

 minds of hunters, fishers, and rustics could comprehend. 

 In these books of natural history we find traces of many 

 stories of this kind which it is unnecessary here to point 

 out. 



In the aquatic and marine orders of animals there is, be 

 sides these sources of information, the diligent investigation 

 instituted by certain writers throughout the seas and rivers 

 of Greece, at a time when every useful fish, and marine and 

 river animals of this class, mollusca, shell fish, and worms 

 formed part of their food. The time and manner of their 

 coition, parturition, pregnancy, and life, the nature of their 

 food, places and manner of taking fish, the times in which 

 they were not accessible, the faults and diseases of aquatic 

 animals, were minutely described. The twentieth chapter 

 of the eighth book of our History is on this subject, where 

 the food and diseases of aquatic animals are described, and 

 particular notice is taken of their use as food, besides the 

 observations on the manners of quadrupeds. 



It is very evident that the life of one man would hardly 

 suffice for the observation of all these facts even in a single 

 class of animals ; but, as I have said, there were writers 

 before the time of Aristotle who provided for the tastes and 

 tables of these fish-eating Greeks a most exquisite apparatus 

 from the rivers and seas of Greece, especially in Sicily, which 

 has been remarkable for its wealth ever since the reigns of 

 Gelo and Hiero, and had surpassed the rest of Greece not 

 only in its knowledge of nature, but in the art of poetry. 



There is a passage in Plato s &quot; Gorgias,&quot; (sect. 156, p. 246, 

 ed. Heiud.) where mention is made of &quot; Mithsecus, the author 

 of a work on Sicilian cookery, and Sarambus, the publican. 

 One furnished the best of food, the other the best of wine.&quot; 

 That the art of choosing and preparing food for the table 

 was treated of in this book we may conclude from the use 

 of the word o-^oiroita, which the Greeks especially used to 

 signify the kinds of fish used for food. A passage from 

 this book on the manner of cooking the fish called tenia is 



