BOOK IX. XLviii. 89-92 



head, which causes it to be the special prey of the 

 lamprey. 



Polyps go into hiding for periods of two months. Thepoiyp's 

 They do not hve more than two years ; but they ^'"'^"'^" • 

 always die of consumption, the females more 

 quickly and usually as a result of bearing off- 

 spring. 



We must also not pass over the facts as to the its dtet 

 polyp ascertained when Lucius Luculhis wasgovernor '"^ "^*''' 

 of Baetica, and pubhshed by one of his stafF, 

 Trebius Niger ; he says that they are extremely 

 greedy for shell-fish, and that these close their shells 

 at a touch and cut ofF the polyp's tentacles, so re- 

 tahating by obtaining food from their would-be 

 robber. Shell-fish do not possess sight or any other 

 sense except consciousness of food and danger. 

 Consequently the polyps he in wait for the shell-fish 

 to open, and placing a stone between the shells, not 

 on the fish's body so that it may not be ejected by 

 its throbbing, thus go to Avork at their ease, and drag 

 out the ffesh, while the shell-fish try to sliut up, but 

 in vain, as they are wedged open : so clever are even 

 the most stupid of animals. Moreover Niger asserts Thepolypu 

 that no animal is more savage in causing the death ^^^^^g" 

 of a man in the water ; for it struggles with him by 

 coihng round him and swallows him with its sucker- 

 cups and drags him asunder by its multiple suction, 

 when it attacks men that have been ship^v-recked or 

 are diving. But should it be turned over, its strength 

 gets feebler ; for when polyps are lying on their 

 backs they stretch themsehxs out. The rest of the 

 facts reported by the same authority may possibly 

 be thought to approximate to the miraculous. In a giatu 

 the fishponds at Carteia" a polyp was inthe habit of ^^*'"'""'- 



223 



