Slippery as an Eel. 173 
paths of the marsh has doubtless watched the brown-hued 
Eels wriggling their way through the grass from one pool to 
another, especially at night, leaving their home and wander- 
ing about, seemingly unconscious whither their pilgrimage 
will end. 
“Slippery as an Eel” is proverbial. Many a person has, 
by his slick, cunning ways, succeeded in eluding the law and 
escaping justice, affording an apt illustration of the character 
of the animal about which we have been talking, but the 
slipperiness of the Eel is not given to it that it may take 
some unlawful advantage of its neighbors, but that it may the 
more readily slip from the grasp of a more powerful enemy, 
or the more easily make its way into the muddy depths of 
the pond or stream which it so very much affects. So it will 
be seen that while this slippery character in the one is pro- 
tective, in the economy of nature, for a wise and laudable 
purpose, yet in the other it but secures to the possessor the 
getting of an ignoble gain and the ruin of a once proud 
name. 
While these agile denizens of aquatic life are selfish and 
voracious almost beyond precedent, and apparently more 
concerned in feeding than in anything else, there are cer- 
tainly some traits in their character which are redeeming 
features. Low as they are in the scale of piscine existences, 
occupying the very lowest family of the Anguillidine Apodes, 
they are none the less susceptible to the human influence of 
kindness. They grow accustomed to man when good is at 
the basis of his actions, and have been known to accept food 
from his hand. They remember the face of a friend, and 
when it is presented at the door of glass, so to speak, that 
opens the way to their home, they come without fear or sus- 
picion showing itself in their movements. Even the sound 
of the voice of a benefactor awakens a sympathetic response 
in their bosoms. 
