SGOMBEEIDjE. 319 



the dory, and coryphsena (species which it is impossible 

 to pass over wholly in silence), must be very brief. 



All times and tongues have agreed to call the first of 

 these scombers by some name allusive to the warlike 

 weapon carried in his mouth — ^viz. a sword, several feet 

 in length, finely attenuated in front, and, to the dismay 

 of the denizens of the deep, of a temper like that of its 

 owner, neither to be trusted nor trifled with. At Genoa 

 and other places where the common Italian designation 

 of ' pesce spada' has been in some measure superseded 

 by that of ' imperatore,' the reference is still to this po- 

 lemic blade ; Italian imperators being always represented 

 in their pictures sword in hand. The pugnacity of this 

 unrelenting fish is described by Ovid, or by somebody 

 else, in the line — 



Et durus xiphias. ictu non mitior ensi. 



Nothing indeed, alive or dead, seems to escape its fury ; 

 the larger fish and marine mammals, boats and bathers, 

 are all in turn objects of attack, and even rocks them- 

 selves are liable to assault and battery. 



Struck by the blade, the soundiag stone gives way, 

 And shatter'd rocks their secret veins display.* 



Sometimes rushing into a shdal of thunny (who flee 

 before him like scared sheep from a hungry wolf), the 

 xiphias fleshes his reeking weapon in rapid succession in 

 their bleeding flanks. Sometimes chasing a sailing ves- 

 sel of small calibre, he speeds like a flying spear right in 

 between its ribs, and has been known to produce as much 

 succussion of planks and commotion amongst those on 

 board as when Ulysses and his ' uterine' brethren turned 

 pale, whilst the crazy and staggering automaton quailed 

 under Laocoon's lance. When the spada encounters a 



* Oppian. 



l3 



