278 FED ON HUMAN FLESH. 



was the favorite dish of the Romans, Avho kept the fishes in 

 ponds at a great expense. The best lampreys were pro- 

 cured from Sicily as presents to the reigning emperors and 

 high officials. A hundred pieces of gold were sometimes 

 paid for them. 



A horrible story is told of Pollio, a friend of Augustus 

 Cgesar, who, on the supposition that lampreys fed on human 

 flesh were more delicate, ordered his slaves, when accused 

 of the slightest fault, to be thrown into his fish-pond. This 

 cruelty was discovered when one of his servants broke a glass 

 in the presence of the Emperor, who had been invited to a 

 feast. The master ordered the slave to be seized, but he 

 threw himself at the feet of the Emperor, and begged him 

 to interfere, and not suffer him to be devoured by the lam- 

 preys. On examining into the matter, the Emperor, aston- 

 ished at the barbarity of his favorite, caused the fish-ponds 

 to be filled up. 



Respecting this fish, there is another use to which the 

 mouth or sucker is applied. The whole of its interior arch 

 is studded with rows of teeth, each one of which, on a broad 

 base, is furnished with one or two apparently reversed 

 points, and these teeth which are most remote and con- 

 cealed are larger than others, and more effectually crowded 

 with these points. For simply biting they are useless, but 

 when the breadth of the mouth is brought into contact with 

 the surface of a fish on which the lamprey has laid hold, by 

 producing a vacuum these roughly-pointed teeth are brought 

 forward so as to be able to act on it by a circular motion ; 

 and the limited space of the captive prey is thus rasped into 

 a pulp and swallowed, until a hole is made which may, per- 

 haps, penetrate to the bones, and from the torture of which 

 the most strenuous exertion of the victim cannot deliver it. 

 This is frequent on the mackerel and on other fishes, as the 

 gurnard, coal-fish, cod and haddock. 



The "Mail-Cheeked or Gurnard group of fishes offer 



