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INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



feet, and has been occasionally taken on the British shores, were 

 supposed to possess medicinal virtues. * ' According to Belon, 

 they were called cholic-stones, and were worn on the neck, 

 mounted in gold, to secure the possessor against this painful 

 malady: to be quite effectual, it was pretended that the wearer 

 must have received them as a gift if they had been purchased, 

 they had neither their preventative nor curative power." 



The Opah, or King-fish (Lampris guttatus), a beautiful 

 species of rare occurence in the British seas, is by the 

 Chinese termed Tai, and is esteemed as the peculiar emblem 

 of happiness, because it is sacred to Jebis or Neptune. The 

 John Dory (Zeus faber, Fig. 191) belongs to the same family, 



Fig. 191. JOHN DORY. 



and contends with the Haddock (Morrhua ceglafinus) for the 

 honour of bearing the marks of St. Peter's fingers each being- 

 supposed to have been the fish out of whose mouth the Apostle 

 took the tribute money, leaving on its sides, in proof of the 

 identity, the marks of his finger and thumb. 



In many of the ports of the Mediterranean, the Dory is 

 hence called " St. Peter's Fish."* The fishermen of the 

 Adriatic term it il Janitore, "the gatekeeper," a word which 



* Cuvier et Valenciennes. Histoire Naturelle (les Poissons, vol. x. p. 6. 



