and Giants of the Ancients. 203 



and often grows to an enormous size ; so that iElian's account 

 of fishing for it may hardly be exaggerated. Some years ago 

 there was an amusing drawing in ' Punch's Ahiianac' of an 

 angler, whose fishing-apparatus consisted of a portable crane 

 on wheels with ropes and pulleys, fishing for these same siluri, 

 in case of their ever growing to a gigantic size in the rivers of 

 this country. 



It is not quite certain whether Pliny meant to distinguish 

 between the silurus and the glanis. Of the latter he only says, 

 "cautius qui glanis vocatur, aversos mordet hamos, nee devorat 

 sed esca spoliat" (Nat. Hist. ix. 43). He may here be referring 

 to what Aristotle says in the passage I have quoted above. 

 Of the silurus he says that it inhabits a lake called Nilides, 

 formed by the Nile (v. 9), also that it occurs in the rivers of 

 the Fortunate Islands (Canaries) (vi. 32). He enumerates the 

 silurus of the Nile amongst the fish which grow to an enormous 

 size, speaks of the devastation it commits, and adds that it 

 sometimes drags horses under the water as they swim (ix. 15) ; 

 the male takes care of the eggs (ix. 51). Atheuaius quotes old 

 writers who appear to regard the glanis and silurus as distinct 

 fish ; the glanis is always much esteemed as a dainty dish. 

 Matron, the parodist, mentions this fish, with numerous others, 

 as one of the choice items at an Attic banquet (Atliena3us, iv. 

 136, c). Athenseus compares a large fish found in the Nile to 

 the fish called glanis which is found in the Danube (vii. 311, f). 

 He mentions the silurus four times. In one passage he merely 

 names it as one he remembered when he was in Egypt (vii. 

 312, b) ; in another passage (vii. 287, b) he asks "why people do 

 not call the fish aelovpo^ instead of aiXovpo<;j as he has his name 

 from constantly shaking his tail {utto rov aeiecv rrjv ovpdv).''^ 

 In other passages the word silurus is used with the e])ithet 

 "bad" or stinking, as Sopater the parodist writes (vi. 230, e): 



^airpdr aiXovpov apyvpovs tt/i'o^ e)(wv 



("a stinking silurus on a silver dish")*; and Hiodorus of Sinope, 

 speaking of flattering parasites, says that if a man were to eat 

 cabbages and stinking siluri they would immediately say that 

 his breath smelt delightfully of violets and roses : 



ols €Tr€i(it) vpnaepvyoi, 

 pacpavT^as ») cranpov ffiXovpnv Karaipaywt', 

 'ia Kal pod' etpaauv avTov i)pi(TTi]k€rai. 



(vi. 239, e.) 



And the bad quality a.ttributcd to the silurus by Athenajus 

 reminds one of what Juvenal has said to the same eft'ect. He 

 reminds Crispinus of his low birth and former low occupation, 



