HALIEUTICA. III. 218-24-6 



offering a first meal of hospitality. The fish rejoices 

 and greedily feasts on the welcome banquet and 

 fawns upon the crafty fisherman. As to the house 

 of a hospitable man there comes one famous for deeds 

 of hand or head, and his host is glad to see him at his 

 hearth and entreats him well with gifts and feast 

 and all manner of lo\ing-kindness ; and at the table 

 both rejoice and take their pleasure in pledging cup 

 for cup ; even so the fisher rejoices in hope and 

 smiles while the fish delights in new banquets. 

 Thenceforward the fisherman journeys to the rock 

 every day and relaxes not his labour and ceases not 

 to bring food. And straightway the Anthias gather 

 all together in the place to feast, as if a summoner 

 brought them. Always for more and readier fishes 

 he pro\ides the coveted food, and they have no 

 thought of other paths or other retreats, but there 

 they remain and linger, even as in the \vinter days 

 the flocks abide in the steadings of the shepherds 

 and care not to go forth even a httle from the fold. 

 And when the fishes descry the boat that feeds them 

 starting from the land and speeding >vith the oars, 

 immediately they are all alert and gaily they wheel 

 over the sea, sporting delightfully, and go to meet 

 their nurse. As when the mother Swallow, the bird 

 that first heralds <* the West Wind * of Spring, brings 

 food to her unfledged nestlings and they with soft 

 cheeping leap for joy about their mother in the nest 



* The " genitabilis aura Favoni " Lucret- i. 11; cf. v. 735 

 It ver et Venus et Veneris praenuntius ante [ Pennatus 

 graditur Zephyrus ; Plin. ii. 122 Favonium quidam a.d. viii 

 kalendas Martii chelidoniam vocant ab hirundinis visu. The 

 Swallow (Hirundo rugtlca) arrives in Attica about the 

 second week of March, Mommsen, GriechUche Jahreszeiten, 

 p. 354. 



367 



