Some Poetic Fish- Fancies. 133 



pilotage. The whale, again, was said to be attended by the 

 " musculus," a little fish that swam in front of Behemoth 

 and warned him off the shoals, on which he might have 

 otherwise run aground. 1 This legend reappears in the 

 " Pentameron," where the whale that has lost its way is told 

 to go and get " the sea-mouse " to pilot it. 



The " remora," or sucking-fish, only finds recognition on 

 the score of the myth, that it could (as in Ben Jonson's 

 Magnetic Lady) stop vessels under full sail by suction. 

 Thus Spenser 



" Looking far forth into the ocean wide, 

 A goodly ship, with banners bravely dight, 

 And flag in her topgallant I espied 

 Through the main sea making her merry flight. 

 Fair blew the wind into her bosom right, 

 And th' heavens looked lovely all the while 

 That she did seem to dance as in delight, 

 And at her own felicity did smile. 

 All suddenly there clove unto her keel 

 A little fish that men call remora, 

 Which stopped her course and held her by the heel 

 That wind nor tide could move her thence away. 

 Strange thing meseemeth that so small a thing 

 Should able be so great an one to wring ! " 



In modern times it has been used to illustrate the power 

 of technical trivialities to retard a lawsuit, but antiquity be- 

 lieved it had the power of arresting a ship under full sail 

 by attaching its tail-end to a rock, and its head-end to the 

 keel of a passing vessel 



" The lazy remora's inhaling lips 

 Hung on the keel, retard the struggling ships." 



1 Mallet on " The Critic " is excellently severe : 



" Where'er the king of fish moves on before, 

 This humble friend attends from shore to shore 

 With eyes still earnest, and with bill inclin'd, 

 He picks up what his patron drops behind. 

 With those choice cates his palate to regale, 

 And is the careful Tibbald of a whale." 



