HALIEUTICA, V. 515-542 



offered it, and very soon it vanished from that sea 

 and none marked it any more and it no more visited 

 the place. Doubtless sorrow for the youth that was 

 gone killed it, and with its dead comrade it had been 

 fain to die. 



But not\\-ithstanding, although the Dolphins so 

 excel in gentleness and though they have a heart 

 so much at one '^^^th men, the overweening Thracians 

 and those who dwell in the city of Byzas " hunt them 

 with iron-hearted devices — surely kicked men and 

 sinful ! who would not spare their children or their 

 fathers and would lightly slay their brothers born. 

 And this is the manner of their unpleasant hunting. 

 The mother Dolphin — a mother to her sorrow — is 

 closely attended by her Uvin brood, '' like unto boys 

 of tender age. Now against these the cruel Thracians 

 array their attack, equipping a light boat for the 

 sinful labour of their hunt. The young Dolphins, 

 when they see the speeding bark before them, 

 remain still and look not to flight, not dreaming 

 that any guile or ill would come upon them from 

 men, but fawn on them as on kindly comrades \\-ith 

 delight, rejoicing as they meet their own destruction. 

 Then the fishers strike s^\iftly the hurled trident 

 which they call a harpoon, most deadly weapon of 

 the hunt, and smite one of the young Dolphins with 

 unthought of woe. And shrinking back in the bitter 

 anguish of its pain, it straightway dives within the 

 nether brine, racked with torture and grievous agony. 

 And the fishers do not hale it up by force — else 

 would they be undertaking to no purpose a vain 

 and empty work of hunting — but as it rushes, they 



A. 566 b 6 riKTct 5' 6 fxiv Se\<pis to. fjxv iroK'^a., tv iviore Si 

 Kal Svo ; Ael. i. 18 rfrret S6o. 



503 



