HALIEUTICA, I. 189-213 



seas, and they attend them as conveyers, voyaging 

 ■with them on this side and on that,. gambolUng 

 around and about the well-benched chariot of the 

 sea, about both sides and about the controlling helm 

 at the stern, while others gather round the prow ; 

 not of their own motion thou wouldst say that they 

 voyage, but rather entangled in the well-riveted 

 timbers are pulled against their -v^ill as in chains and 

 carried along perforce ; so great a swarm does their 

 passion for hollow ships collect. Even as a city- 

 saving king or some athlete crowned with fresh 

 garlands is beset by boys and youths and men who 

 lead him to his house and attend him always in troops 

 until he passes the fencing threshold of his halls, 

 even so the Pilot-fishes always attend swift-faring 

 ships, so long as no fear of the earth drives them 

 away. But when they mark the dry land — and 

 greatly do they abhor the solid earth — they all turn 

 back again in a body and rush away as from the 

 starting-post and follow the ships no more. This is 

 a true sign to sailors that they are near land, when 

 they see those companions of their voyage leaving 

 them. O Pilot-fish, honoured of seafarers, by thee 

 doth a man divine the coming of temperate Minds ; 

 for Mith fair weather thou dost put to sea and fair 

 weather signs thou showest forth. 



Companion of the open seas likewise is the 

 Echeneis." It is slender of aspect, in length a cubit, 



L. (Fam. Scomhridae), but the fish described by Oppian is 

 the Lamprey, Petromyzon marinus, M.G. XafXTpiva. For 

 similar confusion cf. Day 1. p. 109. For legend of Echeneis 

 detaining ships cf. Plut. Mor. 641 b; Ael. ix. 17; Phil, 117; 

 Plin. xxxii. 2-6 : Ov. Hal. 99 Parva echeneis adest, mirum, 

 mora puppibus ingens ; Lucan vi. 674 f. puppim retinens 

 Euro tendente rudentes | In mediis echeneis aquis. 



227 



