BOOK IX. Lx. 125-128 



them to discharge a sort of waxy viseous slime. The 

 murex also does this in a similar manner, but it has 

 the famous flower of purple, sought after for dyeing 

 robes, in the middle of its throat : here there is a 

 white vein of very scanty fluid from which that 

 precious dye, suffused with a dark rose colour, is 

 drained, but the rest of the body produces nothing. 

 People strive to catch this fish alive, because it 

 discharges this juice with its Ufe ; and from the 

 larger purples they get the juice by stripping off 

 the shell, but they crush the smaller ones ahve with 

 the shell, as that is the only way to make them dis- 

 gorge the juice. The best Asiatic purple is at Tyre, 

 the best African is at Meninx and on the GaetuUan 

 coast of the Ocean, the best European in the district 

 of Sparta. The official rods and axes of Rome clear purpie robes 

 it a path, and it also marks the honourable estate of"^"^"' 

 boyhood ; it distinguishes the senate from the knight- 

 hood, it is caUed in to secure the favour of the gods " ; 

 and it adds radiance to every garment, while in a 

 triumphal robe it is blended with gold. Consequently 

 even the mad Uist for the puqDle may be excused ; 

 but what is the cause of the prices paid for pui*jDle- 

 sheUs, which have an unhealthy odour when used for 

 dye and a gloomy tinge in their radiance resembUng 

 an angry sea ? 



The purple's tongue is an inch long ; when ^foredetaiu 

 feeding it uses it for piercing a hole in the other 'll^"J^.figi, 

 kinds of sheU-fish, so hard is its point. These fish 

 die in fresh water and wherever a river discharges 

 into the sea, but othervvise when caught they Uve as 

 much as seven weeks on their own slime. AU shell- 

 fish grow with extreme rapidity, especially the 

 puqDle-fish ; they reach their fuU size in a year 



249 



