MULLID^ OK MULLETS. 133 



derivation itself seems easier and less forced, that adjec- 

 tive moreover points out a leading peculiarity of the mul- 

 let — namely, an extreme softness of skin, sufiiciently 

 evidenced by the extravasation which ensues, and the 

 facility with which the scales come off on the least pres- 

 sure. As to the meaning of the Greek word triglia, 

 that, if we subscribe to Oppian's etymology, admits of no 

 doubt : 



Tke triglia, named from breeding thrice a year ;* 

 but Athenseus, who affirms that this species only breeds 

 three times, and after the third parturition has the 

 womb destroyed by worms, thinks the name is given in 

 allusion to this periodic mishap. A singular circum- 

 stance about this latter synonym is, that it not only ob- 

 tains at present in modern Greece (where indeed, if any- 

 where, we might expect to find it), but has also entirely 

 supplanted the old Latia word in Italy; so that no one 

 now ever hears 'Mugli! mugli!^ hawked about the streets 

 of Rome or Naples; but the constant cry is ' Trigle vive ! 

 trigle V 



The inordinate love for these same trigle, in the city 

 and times of the Csesars, would surpass belief, if much 

 contemporary evidence did not lay an historical bar ia 

 the way of any rational scepticism on the subject. Mul- 

 lomania, though undescribed as a disease by Roman phy- 

 sicians, was a mental malady well known and deplored 

 by Roman moralists, which, invading the grown-up 

 children of the higher ranks, seems to have been as rife 

 and catching among them as modern measles or small- 

 pox. All Rome's great men and mighty men, and coun- 

 cillors of state; all her citizens of trust, taste, and 

 ton ; prince, premier, and philosopher, poet, painter, and 

 pimp, parasite, parvenu, and purveyor, were, with the 

 vel-duo vel-nemo exception, confirmed muUomaniacs; and 



* Tpty\at Se Tpi.y6voi(nv eirwwfi.oi fl(n yovfj<n. — Salieut, 



