19J. PROSE HAXIETJTICS. 



all this to be grattiitous assertion, without any foun- 

 dation in fact ; and he says, on the contrary, ' que la 

 cote de Macedoine est tres-poissonneuse, et certainement 

 Strabo et Pline avaient ete trompes par ceux qui leur, 

 avaient fait accroire que les pelamyds ou jeunes thons 

 s'en detournaient epouvantes par les roches blanches ca- 

 chees sous I'eau, lesquelles les obligeaient de gagner la 

 cote de Byzance ; au contraire, les pelamyds de Mace- 

 doine etaient si recherches par les anciens, que Varron, 

 cite par Aule Gelle, les mettait parmi les morceaux les 

 plus delicieux; et Ton ne voit aujourd'hui que filets au- 

 tour de cette ville pour la peche de jeunes thons.' 



A favourite time for catching thunny seems to have 

 been at the full of the moon, when, allmred by the silvery 

 light, they glide in great bands through the water, and 

 are easily kidnapped. 



Tlie nets have been shot, and on careless fin 

 The moonlit thuimies will soon rush in,* 



was an oracular announcement to Pisistratus, which he, 

 construing to mean that the careless Athenians were to 

 be gi^'cn into his hand, surprised them one day after 

 breakfast whilst they were playing dice, and totally un- 

 prepared to receive him, and soon had the whole city as 

 much at his disposal as a fisherman a shoal of thunny 

 sporting by moonlight.f Another occasion when thunny 

 are very easily secured, is whilst sufiering under the ma- 

 lign iafluence of the oestrum; J whenever they are stung 



overlooked the advantages of the opposite shore, and so lost those 

 fisheries which the Byzantines afterwards acquired, 



* 'Eppinrat 8" 6 ^6\os, to 8e biKTVov fWeTreVaorat 



0VVOI fi' olfiTja-oviTi a-ekrivair)! 8ia vvktos. 



t Belon mentions having seen an ancient coin in the possession 

 of Groeler, representing a thunny swimming under a ftill moon. 



X This crustacean parasite, which affects ahke the thunny and 

 the sword-fish, is the pennatula filosa of Gmelin, and penilla of 



