HALIEUTICA, I. 281-306 



herds of the Prawn " and the shameless tribes of the 

 Pagurus,* whose lot is numbered with the amphibians/ 



All those whose body is set beneath a shell put off 

 the old shell ^ and another springs up from the nether 

 flesh. The Pagurus, when they feel the \iolence of 

 the rending shell, rush everywhere in their desire 

 for food, that the separation of the slough may be 

 easier when they have sated themselves. But when 

 the sheath is rent and slips off, then at first they lie 

 idly stretched upon the sands, mindful neither of 

 food nor of aught else, thinking to be numbered with 

 the dead and to breathe warm breath no more, and 

 they tremble for their new-grown tender hide. 

 Afterwards they recover their spirits again and take 

 a little courage and eat of the sand ; but they are 

 weak and helpless of heart until a new shelter is 

 compacted about their limbs. Even as when a 

 physician tends a man who is laden with disease, in 

 the first days he keeps him from tasting food, blunt- 

 ing the fierceness of his malady, and then he gives 

 him a little food for the sick, until he has cleared 

 away all his distress and his limb-devouring aches 

 and pains ; even so they retire, fearing for their 

 new-grown shells, to escape the e\il fates of disease. 



Other reptiles dwell in the haunts of the sea, the 

 crooked Poulpe * and the Water-newt ^ and the 

 Scolopendra,^ abhorred by fishermen, and the 



veris principio senectutem anguium more exuunt renovatione 

 tergorum ; Phil. iii. ; Ael. ix. 37. For use of comparative 

 yepairepov cf. TraXatrepos Callim. E. vi. 1. An account of 

 Crab casting shell, St. John, N.U., etc., in Moray, p. 208. 



* Octopus mlgaris. 



* Triton palustris, or allied species, cf. A. 487 a 28, 490 a 4, 

 589 b 27 ; De resp. 476 a 6 ; Fart. an. 695 b -25 ; Athen. 

 306 b. » //. ii. 424 n. 



235 



