HALIEUTICA, I. 214-243 



its colour dusky, its nature like that of the eel ; 

 under its head its mouth slopes sharp and crooked, 

 like the barb of a curved hook. A marvellous thing 

 have mariners remarked of the slipperj" Echeneis, 

 hearing which a man would refuse to believe it in 

 his heart ; for always the mind of inexperienced 

 men is hard to persuade, and they \^'ill not believe 

 even the truth. When a ship is straining under 

 stress of a strong wind, running with spread sails 

 over the spaces of the sea, the fish gapes its tiny 

 mouth and stays all the ship underneath, constrain- 

 ing it below the keel ; and it cleaves the waves no 

 more for all its haste but is firmly stayed, even as if 

 it were shut up in a tideless harbour. All its canvas 

 groans upon the forestays, the ropes creak, the yard- 

 arm bends under the stress of the breeze, and on the 

 stem the steersman gives ever}- rein to the ship, 

 urging her to her briny path. But she nor heeds 

 the helm nor obeys the winds nor is driven by the 

 waves but, fixed fast, remains against her \\ill and 

 is fettered for all her haste, rooted on the mouth of 

 a feeble fish. And the sailors tremble to see the 

 mysterious bonds of the sea, beholding a mar\el hke 

 unto a dream. As when in the woods a hunter lies 

 in wait for a swift-running Deer and smites her with 

 winged arrow on the leg and stays her in her course ; 

 and she for all her haste, transfixed with compelling 

 pain, umvilhngly awaits the bold hunter ; even such 

 a fetter doth the spotted fish cast about the ship 

 which it encounters, and from such deeds it gets its 

 name. 



229 



