OEPHALOPODS. 317 



until it nearly reaches the bottom. The fisherman then 

 gently jerks the line, causing the shell to move as if inha- 

 bited by a fish." " The cuttle-fish, attracted, it is supposed, 

 by the appearance of the cowrie (for no bait is used) darts 

 out one of its arms or rays, which it winds round the shell 

 and fastens among the openings between the plates. The 

 fisherman continues jerking the line, and the fish puts out 

 arm or ray till it has quite fastened itself to the shells, when 

 it is drawn up into the canoe, and secured." * 



This resolved fixedness of the cuttles on their prey is a 

 trait of their disposition that had been early noticed. You 

 may remember that Homer makes mention of it, when he 

 wishes to impress upon us the firmness of Ulysses' grasp on 

 an occasion of imminent danger : 



" As when the Polypus, enforced, forsakes 

 His rough recess, in his contracted claws,t 

 He gripes the pebbles still to which he clung. 

 So he Ulysses within his lacerated grasp 

 The crumbled stone retain'd, when from his hold 

 The huge wave forc'd him, and he sank again." 



Ovid, likewise, describing how the nymph Salmacis detained 

 Hermaphroditus in her embraces, compares her to a serpent 

 twining round the head and wings of an eagle, to ivy encir- 

 cling an oak, and, finally, to the Polypus holding fast his 

 adversary : 



" Utque sub ssquoribus deprensum polypus hostem 

 Continet, ex omni demissis parte flagellis."J 



And Plautus (in the " Aulularia "), in reference to rapacious 

 flatterers, exclaims : " Ego istos novi polypos, qui sibi 

 quicquid tetigerint tenent." The knowledge of the fact, 



* Ellis, Polynes. Researches, i. 144. 



t The friend to whom I am indebted for these classical notices, tells me 

 that the word here translated claws, is KorvXySovai, which properly signifies 

 the cups or sucking disks with which the arms are studded. The passage 

 in Southey's edition of Cowper's Odyssey, is considerably different from 

 that we have given, and the description of the Polypus is not less erro- 

 neous : 



but yet again 



The refluent flood rush'd on him, and with force 



Resistless dashed him far into the sea. 



As pebbles to the hollow polypus 



Extracted from his stony bed, adhere, 



So he, the rough rocks clasping, stripped his hands 



Raw, and the billows now whelm'd him again." 



Book v. 1. 517-23. 

 Metam. iv, 366. 



