THE AMERICAN LOBSTER. 7 



of "the small astaci, which are bred in the rivers"' showing that the reference is 

 undoubtedly to the crayfish. 



Athemeus frequently mentions the Astacus in the third book of The Deipnosoph- 

 ists, where, as in the passage quoted below, lie undoubtedly had in mind the lobster. 

 This is from a famous poem of Archeslratus, wherein, as Athemeus remarks, he never 

 once mentions the crab by the name of xa/>a/3»<r, yet does speak of the aWa*.*?. 



But passiug our trifles, buy an astacus, 

 Which has long- hands and heavy, too, but feet 

 Of delicate smallness, and which slowly walks 

 Over the earth's face. A goodly troop there are 

 Of such, and those of finest flavor where 

 The isles of Lipara do gem the ocean : 

 And many lie deep in the broad Hellespont. 



(The Deipnosophists ; Bk. in, tr. by C. D. Yonge, 1854.) 



Athemeus then quotes from another author, Epicharm us, to show that the «W«x«? 

 mentioned by Archestratus is the same as the xdpa^oq: 



There are astaci and colybd;en;e, both equipped 

 With little feet and long hands, both coining' under 

 The name of Kapafiog. 



The English word lobster is from the old English lopystre, 2 which is probably a 

 corruption of the Latin locusta — English, locust — a name used by Pliny in speaking of 

 the lobster in his Natural History. Thus, in the ninth book, he says: "The lobsters, 

 being of that kind which want blood, are protected by a weak shell." s In the next 

 section of the same chapter there is a sentence, 4 in which the astaci are mentioned as 

 one of the genera of crabs. It is possible that lobsters are here referred to, but the 

 meaning is doubtful. 



Gesner, whose remarkable History of Animals was published at Ziirich between 

 1551 and 15S7, speaks of the lobster under the Aristotlean name of Astacus, and adds 

 a very interesting synonymy. He says : 



The English call the Astacus a creuyse of the sea," for the lopstar of the English is the locust, not 

 the astacus; although Eliot in different places has translated astacus, locust, and leo as a lopster. 15 



1 7Vc iiaraKolg /UKpolg, ol yiyvovrai aal kv rolg iroraixol^. A. H. 4. 4. 



- Longusta or langusta, la langouste of the Freuch, the Palinurus, probably has the same origin. 

 This was corrupted to ''long oyster" in the West Indies. (See The Natural History of Jamaica, by 

 Hans Sloane, vol. II, p. 271.) 



:! Locusta? crusta fragile muniuntur in eo genere quod caret sanguine. Latent men3ibus quinis, 

 similiter cancri qui eodeui tempore occultantnr, et ambo veris principio senectutem anguiuin more 

 exuernnt renovatione tergoruin. Lib. ix, Cap. xxx, sec. 50. 



4 Cancrorum genera carabi, astaci maeae, paguri, heracleotici, leones et alia ignobiliora. Ibid., 

 sec. 51. 



B Creuyse according to Skeat, is probably a variation in the spelling of the Middle English for 



crayfish (crayf-ish), crevis, creves, crevise, or creveys; Old French, crevisse, or eserevisse ; Modern 



French, ecrerisse ; Old High German, crebez ; Middle High German, Tcrebez ; German, Krebs, allied to 

 Krabbc. 



,: Anglis astacus est a creuyse of the sea, nam lopstar Anglorum, locusta est, non astacus; qnam- 

 quam Eliota diversis locis astacum locustam et leonem interpretatus a Lopster (75, De Astaco. pp. 

 113-121). [Eliota is Sir Thomas Elyot, who published a Latin-English dictionary in 1538.] 



