HALIEUTICA, IV. 93-120 



aid. For when the wit of the fisher perceives them 

 thronging and raging incontinently in their lust after 

 the female, he puts in the weel line and lead together 

 and the weight of the lead pulls the female Parrot- 

 wrasse within. Then the males together, soon as 

 they see it, so soon they rush in emulous haste, 

 speeding to the plaited net of death and with their 

 eager troops the withy vestibule and grievous mouth 

 of the gates are straitened : such goads of passion 

 urge them on. As men who engage in the contest 

 of the footrace dart swiftly from the line and forward 

 and ever forward strain their speedy limbs and haste 

 to accomphsh the long course ; and the desire of 

 every man is to reach the goal and to win the sweet 

 triumph of victory and dash within the lists " and 

 crown them with the athletic prize : even so doth 

 like passion lead those fishes to the house of Hades — 

 to rush within the coverts of an ambush whence 

 there is no return. And, with their fatal and final 

 madness of desire, of their own motion they fulfil 

 the fishermen's desire of spoil. 



Others again put a li\ing female within the dark 

 weel and place it under those rocks which the milky 

 Parrot-wTasse affects. Beguiled by the amorous 

 breath of love the Wrasses gather around and lick 

 about and search everywhere to find the entrance 

 of the weel. And speedily they come upon the 

 entrj' — wide, but with a fence beyond escape — 

 and they rush in altogether in a crowd and there is 

 no means of getting out, but they find a hateful 

 issue to their desires. Even as one who devises a 



racecourse : Lucan, i. 293 quantum claraore iuvatur | Eleus 

 sonipes, quamvis iam carcere clauso j immineat foribus 

 pronusque repagula laxeL 



411 



