278 Mr. E. W. CJudgor on the 



Hexanierou*, Homily VII. paragraph 56, he writes: ''If 

 now you hear say that the greatest vessels sailing with full 

 sails are easily stopped by a very small fish, by the Kemora, 

 and ;so I'orcibly that the ship remains motionless for a long 

 time, as if it had taken root in the middle of the sea, do you 

 not see in this little ereature a like proof of the power of the 

 creator ? " 



St. Ambrose (340-397) in his ' Hexameron/ the first 

 edition of whieh bears the imprint Basileae, 1566, deseribes 

 Echinus (probably a misspelling of Eehencis) as a foreteller 

 of storms. " At the approach of a tempest the fish lays hold 

 of a rock and sticks fast to it until calm weather returns. 

 The sailors, noting this, govern themselves accordingly.'^ 

 This is probably an echo of Aristotle's little fish found 

 among rocks, and seems to be the first of a long succession 

 of similar stories, ascribing to this fish weather-forecasting 

 powers. St. Ambrose, however, does not seem to give the 

 ship-holding story. 



Jorath, who was jjrobably an Oriental Christian of the 

 twelfth century, speaks of a fish called Achandes whieh 

 sticks fast to ships in the sea, thus making them to stand 

 stoc;k still t- 



About the year 1250, Bartholomew Anglicus wrote his 

 encyclopedic work ' De Piojjrietatibus Rebus,' which was 

 trant^lated by John Trevisa in 1397, and printed at Win- 

 chester in 14-91. The following is his interesting account 

 of the ship-holder, for which also I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Dr. Eastman : — 



"Eiichirius is a little fish unncth [only] half afoot long; 

 for tliouj;h he be full little of body, nathless he is most of 

 virtue. For he cleaveth to the ship, and holdeth it still 

 steadfastly in the sea, as though the ship were on ground 

 therein. Tho' winds blow, and waves rise strongly, and 

 wood [violent] storms, that ship may not move nother 

 [neither] pass. And that fish holdeth not still the ship by 

 no craft hut only by cleaving to the ship.-'' 



In 1475, Johami von Cuba (or Cube) published at Metz 

 his ' Hortus Sauitatis.' In the edition of 1536 on page 78 

 of chapter 34 he discourses of Echeneis or Echinus. This, 



* " Hexameron is the title of nine homilies delivered by St. I3asil on 



the cosmogony of the opening chapters of (ienesis Basil read 



the book of Genesis in the light of scientific knowledge of his day." 

 He was born in 329 and died in his fiflietli year. 



t For this reference I am indebted to Dr. Iv'istmun, who ran across it 

 on page 71 of Von Cuba's 'Hortus .Sanitatis,' to which reference will be 

 made later. 



