and Glanisoftlie Antients. 203 



■ and often grows to an enormous size ; so that -^Elian's account 

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

 there was an amusing drawing in ' Punch's Ahnanac ' 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 haraos, 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). Athenseus quotes old 

 writers who appear to regard the glanis and silurus as distinct 

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

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

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

 136, c). Athenajus 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 cre/ou/oo? instead of <7tX,oypo9, as he has his name 

 from constantly shaking his tail [airo rov aeletv ttjv ovpav)^ 

 In other passages the word silurus is used with the ej)ithet 

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



SaTTjOOJ' aiXovpoi' apyvpovs niraS, ej^wv 



("a stinking silurus on a silver dish") ; and Diodorus 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 eirei^i) Trpoaepvyoi, 

 pa(j)ai'2das ?/ (ranpov arlXovpov Knrntpayijv, 

 'ia Kal pud' e(paaav av-ov ypiarrjkeyai. 



(vi. 239, e.) 



And the bad quality attributed to the silurus by Athenjeus 

 reminds one of what Juvenal has said to the same effect. He 

 reminds Crispinus of his low birth and former low occupation. 



