HALIEUTICA, V. 187-214 



mouth : so, breathing hard, the Whale rests. But 

 the skins allow him not, even if he would, to remain 

 below but swiftly speed upward and leap forth from 

 the sea, buoyed by the breath within them ; and a 

 new contest arises for the Whale. Then first he 

 makes a vain rush >\ith his jaws, eager to defend 

 himself against the hides which pull him up. But 

 these fly upward and await him not, but flee like 

 li\ing things seeking escape. And he indignant 

 rushes again to the innermost deep of the brine, and 

 many a t^^^st and turn he makes, now perforce, now 

 of his own will, pulling and being pulled in turn. As 

 when woodcutters ° labour busily at the joint labour 

 of the saw, when they haste to make a keel or other 

 needful matter for mariners : both men in turn 

 draw to them the rough edge of iron pressing on 

 the wood and the row of its teeth is never turned in 

 one path, but urged from either side it sings loudly 

 as it saws and evermore is drawn the other way : 

 even such is the contest between the hides and the 

 deadly beast — he being dragged up, while they are 

 urged the other way. Much bloody spume he dis- 

 charges over the sea as he struggles in his pain, and 

 his panting breath as he rages resounds under the 

 sea, and the water bubbles and roars around ; thou 

 wouldst say that all the blasts of Boreas were housed 

 and hidden beneath the waves : so violently he pants 

 in his fury. And round about many a swirUng eddy 

 the swelling waves make a hollow in the waters and 

 the sea is divided in twain. As by the mouth of the 



action (c/. Eng. "see-saw") cf. ArLstoph. V&sp. 694 wt 

 ■wpiovd^ b fikv i\Kfi, 6 5' a.vT(viB(i)K€ ; Hippocr. Ilepi Aioirjjs, 

 i. p. 634 Kiihn vpiovaiv S.v6puiroi ^v\ov, 6 fiiv eXxet. 6 5i 

 (bdhi ; ibid. p. 635 wrrep oi riKToves rb liv\of rpioivi, Kai 6 fiiw 



475 



