132 PROSE HALIEOTICS. 



— viz. M. surmuletus, our English red mullet, well cha- 

 racterized by a series of longitudinal yellow bands tra- 

 versing the sides of the body; and M. barbatus, so called, 

 like one of the Scipios, from the length of its (fishy) 

 beard. The last-named individual is very much, but 

 not entirely, as Pliny supposed, confined to southern 

 seas; and though exceeded by the first in size, greatly 

 surpasses it in flavour. Both species being red, have re- 

 ceived from the French, in common with the gurnards, 

 and for the same reason, the trivial name rougets; 

 while, to distinguish them generically, barbets is added 

 to designate mullets, and grondins, gurnards. 



The origin of the old Latin word mullus is certainly 

 obscure, and Pliny's and Fenestrella's interpretation of 

 it — viz. mullus a mulleo — evidently incorrect. The mul- 

 leus, as we read, was a kind of red dress-slipper — the 

 rococo predecessor of soleas and gallicas, which, if not 

 manufactured by Trojan shoemakers, and introduced by 

 ^neas into Italy, was at any rate as old as the Alban 

 kings, by whom it continued to be worn till, that dynasty 

 being upset, the victorious Romans, not content with 

 figuratively ' casting out their own shoe' over the van- 

 quished land, actually got into the enemy's slippers, and 

 so trod them both down at heel ! The improbability of 

 an etymology which assumes a fish to be called after a 

 shoe, for no better reason than that each is red, and that 

 the names severally designating them are not dissimilar 

 in sound, is sufficiently obvious; especially when such 

 a 'hunt-the-slipper' derivation unavoidably sends the 

 mullet to fish for a name anterior to the date of these 

 Alban brodequins; what, then, might it have been when 

 the Pelliti Patres of Eome ate it barefoot, or were 

 differently shod? Conceding that the origin of the 

 word is as cloudy and obscure as that of the people who 

 imposed it, if we must yet trace it to some source, why 

 not rather to mollis than mulleus ? for, besides that the 



