HALIEUTICA, IV. 44^7 



defence and cutting through the Une with his teeth * 

 rescues his comrade and destroys the snare and grieves 

 the fisherman. And ere now, when a Parrot-wrasse 

 has been taken in the plaited weel,*" another has 

 stolen him away and saved him from destruction. 

 For when the dappled fish falls into the ambush of 

 the weel, immediately he perceives it and tries to 

 escape from his e%'il plight. Turning down his head 

 and eyes he swims back tailwards along the barrier, 

 for he dreads the sharp rushes which bristle around 

 the entrance and as he comes against them wound 

 his eyes, even as if they were warders of the gate. 

 The others, seeing him wheeUng about helplessly, 

 come from the outside to his aid and leave him not 

 in his distress. And someone of them, I ween, 

 reaches his tail through the weel like a hand for his 

 comrade inside to grasp ; and he seizes it in his 

 teeth and the other pulls him forth from death, 

 while he holds in his mouth the guiding tail as a 

 chain. Often too the fish that is caught in the weel 

 puts forth his o^vn tail and another grasps it and 

 pulls him forth in its train. By such de\ices do they 

 escape doom. As when under the darkness of 

 shadowy night men cUmb a rugged hill, when the 

 moon is hidden and the curtains of the clouds are 



dyoiviJ' ; Ael. i. ■!• ij5r] Se /cai fis rbv Kvprov tov ffKapov eurfaeiv 

 paoLV KoX TO oC'pdioy fitpos iK^aXeiy, root Si a6rjpdT0vs Kal 

 ir€pi.vio»Ta% ivSaKeiv Kal eis rb l{w top eraipoD rpoa-yayeir. ei 

 Se i^ioi Kara to cTTOfia tG)p tij i^w ttjv ovpav Tapupe^ef, 6 5^ 

 xe/xxtu'iji' TjKo\ovdTi<7€v ; Ov. Hal. 9 sic et scarus arte sub 

 undis I Incidit adsumptamque dolo tandem pavet escam. | 

 Non audet radiis obnixa occurrere fronte, | Aversus crebro 

 vimen sed verbere caudae \ Ijaxans subsequitur tutumque 

 evadit in aequor. | Quin etiara si forte aiiquis dum pone 

 nataret, , Mitis luctantem scarus hunc in rimine vidit, | 

 Aversam caudam morsu tenet. 



407 



