46 PEOSB HALIBUTICS. 



guils thereof.' Many of the conscript fathers, too, and 

 other eminent personages, were so much under fish fas- 

 ciaation, that they thought no time or trouhle too great, 

 if they could but train some docile favourite to feed out 

 of their hand ; and that object once attained, they were 

 wrapped in an elysium of delight.* Cicero called two 

 of his friends subject to this delusion 'Tritones pisci- 

 narum,^ tritons of fish-ponds ; and ' pisciaarii,' or stock- 

 pond men. 



The neighbourhood of Naples still maiatains its Adva- 

 ria ; the finest are those at Caserta, which belong to the 

 king. Here a magnificent reservoir, fed by mimic cas- 

 cades, holds packs of immense hungry trout, who rush 

 from the depths of their basin towards the margin on 

 seeing anybody pass, making such a stir and plashing, 

 and being withal so shark-like and impetuous, that even 

 an angler is taken aback, and instinctively seeks protec- 

 tion by the side of the custode. It is strange to witness 

 the evolutions of the fierce troop as they drag down the 

 projected bait almost ere it reach the water, leaping at it 

 with all the acharnement of dogs on a boar's back, and 

 presentiag so gaunt and famished an appearance, that 

 the ghost of Vedius PoUio rises quite unconjured, and a 

 thrill pervades the beholder as he wonders on what, or 

 on whom, the Neapolitan despot may occasionally feed 

 these audacious farios. Here there would be no difficulty 

 to get them to feed out of the hand ; the only difficulty 



* The pastime of feeding fish was not confined to civilized ancient 

 Borne ; it is in practice also among difierent tribes of modem 

 barbarians, as appears from tbe accounts of several recent travel- 

 lers, whereof one writes as follows : ' Fish are great favovirites in 

 Otaheite, and are fed in large holes half-fiUed with water. I have 

 been frequently with a young chieftain when he has sat down by 

 the side of a hole, and giving a whistle, has brought out an enor- 

 mous eel, which has moved about the surface of the water, and 

 eaten with confidence from his master's hand.' — Ullis. 



