338 FISHERIES— PRICE OF FISH— SPAWNING 



even with other passages ; in Pap. Fayum Towns (a.d. ioo), of 

 £2 drachma for fish ; in Pap. Petrie III. 107 [e), 6, 24 drachmcB 

 for fish (third century b.c.) ; and in a Papyrus not yet (1918) 

 pubhshed, 4 ohols and 5 ohols for a "male" Cestreus, or Mugil 

 capita . 



With salt fish, again, we have no certain leading. For 

 2 dipla or double jars of this comestible the price was 2 drachmce, 

 but then their size is uncertain.^ So again it doth not vantage 

 us much to read of 240 drachmce being given in a.d. 255 for 

 " a jar of pickled fish " {XhnTiov), because the size of the jar is 

 still undetermined. 2 Nor does " 56 drachmce for 100 pieces 

 of salt fish " (third century a.d.) solve the problem because, 

 although a " piece of salt fish " probably implied some definite 

 weight, we have no data for discovering to what this amounted. ^ 

 Nor again can we deduce anything definite from the statement 

 that in the third century a.d. a jar {Kzpaixiov) of salt fish 

 fetched i drachma i| ohols. 



The superior derision with which some writers regard the 

 simple, if inaccurate account, given by Herodotus of the spawn- 

 ing of the Egyptian fish betokens their ignorance of the parable 

 of the beam and the mote. 



If Herodotus erred, what (and this I keep reiterating, on 

 the Kipling principle of " lest we forget ") about the theorists 

 for 2300 years as to the procreation of Eels ? 



Aristotle with his " Entrails of the earth," Oppian with his 

 " Slime of their bodies," Helmont with his " May Dew." others 

 with their "Horse-hair," and Walton with his "Spontaneous 

 Generation " are they as correct zoologists as the Father of 

 History ? With him procreation resulted from a semi-direct if 

 inaccurate connection, but May Dews and Horse-hairs, etc., etc., 

 what do they or what could they do in the galley of contact ? 



After which outburst I pass to Herodotus. ^ 



" Gregarious fish are not found in any numbers in the rivers ; 

 they frequent the lagunes, whence, at the season of breeding, 

 they proceed in shoals towards the sea. The males lead the 



^ Pap. Oxyr., III. 520, 21, a.d. 143. 



* Berliner Eriechische Urkundcn, I. 14, col. IV. 18, 



' Egyptian Exploration Fund Annual Report, 1906-7, p. 9. 



* Bk. II. 93. 



