HALIEUTICA, II. 414r-434 



darts forth stealthily behind and seizes liis neck with 

 murderous hands and overpowers and lays him low 

 in a cruel sleep not far from death and despoils him 

 of all his raiment and goes his way with his booty, 

 ill-gotten and unlawful : even such are the devices 

 of the cunning Poulpes. 



These above all creatures of the sea are hostile 

 and uniriendlv and alone among the fishes of varied 

 tribe are avengers and slayers one of the other. 



Others of the fishes are venomous " and an ugly 

 venom is bred in their mouths and creeps hateful 

 into their bite. Such is the Scolopendra,^ an ominous 

 reptile of the brine, hke in form to the reptile of the 

 land, but deadlier in its hurt. For if one approach 

 and touch it, straightway itch makes a hot redness 

 on his flesh and a weal runs over him as from the 

 grass which, from the pains which it causes, men call 

 the nettle. Most hateful of all is the Scolopendra 

 for fishermen to encounter ; for if it touch the bait, 

 not a fish will come near that hook ; with such a 

 hateful venom does the Scolopendra infect it. 



A hke bane also is bred in the mouth of the spotted 



(jffwep at KaXovuevat Kfloai ; Ael. vii. 35. Generally supposed 

 to be an annelid worm, e.ff. Nereis. Cf. Pliu. Lx. 145 

 Scolopendrae terrestribus similes, quas centipedes vocant, 

 hamo devorato omnia interanea evomunt, donee hamum 

 egerant, deinde resorbent ; Plut. Mor. 567 b oaoi de xpo- 

 aXyftxa Kal ho^av dpfriji xepi/SaXo^evoi Sk^'iuicolv naKiq Xavdavovai), 

 ToiTovi erirovus Kal cSiKijpwj ■fjydyKa^oi' Irepoi xepte<rT<ZTej 

 ^KTp€Trf(r6ai rd evros l^w rfis ^I'XV^t iXvairufiivovs rapa ipvaiv 

 Kcu dyaKafiTTOfUv ovs, (barep at OaXdrTiai aKoXoirevSpai Kara- 

 Ttovffai TO dyKiffTpoy (Krpeirovffiv eavrds. The name ffKo\6- 

 rerSpa was also gi\en to an imknown sea-monster {Krjros 

 OaXdmoy) described by Ael. xiii. 23, to which the reference 

 must be in A. P. vi. ^22, vi. 223. 



319 



