THE MURRY. 229 



from rocks, congers hide themselves hy hurrowing in the 

 ground, where it is customary on some parts of the coast of 

 France to employ dogs in their search. In spite of its tough 

 flesh and exceedingly nauseous smell, the conger was highly 

 esteemed by Greek epicures, and in England in the time of 

 the Henrys considered an article of food fit for a king. Thus, 

 the Prince and Poins, according to Falstaffs account, found 

 amongst other reasons for their companionship this one : that 

 both of them were fond of conger and fennel sauce. In our 

 times its flesh, though banished from all aristocratic tables, 

 meets a ready sale at a low price among the poorer classes. In 

 the Isle of Man the conger may be said to take the place of 

 the poor man's pig ; it is his bacon, which he would find diffi- 

 cult to save if it were not for these large eels, which are caught 

 in great abundance, and sold at the rate of 2d. or 3d. per lb. 

 The Manx men split the congers, and then salt them and 

 hang them up to dry on their cottage walls, where they do not 

 exactly contribute to perfume the gale. 



The Murry or Mursena differs from the common eel by the 

 want of pectoral fins, and its beautifully-marked skin. It is 

 said to live with equal facility in fresh or salt water, though 

 generally found at sea, and it is as common in the Pacific as it 

 is in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. The only specimen on 

 record as a British fish was caught by a fisherman of Polperro, 

 October 8, 1834; its length was four feet four inches. The 

 mursena has acquired a kind of historical celebrity from the 

 strange fondness with which it was cherished by the Romans, 

 who preserved large quantities of them in their numerous 

 vivaria, as we do the lustrous gold-fish in the water-basins of 

 our gardens. A certain Cajus Hirrius, who lived in the time 

 of Julius Csesar, was the first that introduced the fashion, which 

 soon became a passion among the "wealthy senators and knights 

 of the imperial city, who used to deck their especial pets with 

 all kinds of ornaments. The celebrated orator, Hortensius, the 

 rival of Cicero, had a piscina at Bauli, on the gulf of Baiae, 

 where he took great delight in a favourite murry that would 

 come at his call and feed from his hand. When the creature 

 died, he was unable to stop his tears ; and another celebrated 

 Eoman, L. Licinius Crassus, appears to have had an equally 

 tender heart, for he, too, wept at the death of his fishy darling. 



K 



