232 PEOSE HALIEUTICS. 



Witli social joy eaoli jtipluas views his friends. 

 And kindly instincts aid man's treacherous ends. 

 Anon the crafty boatmen, closing round. 

 The trident hurl and deal the deadly wound. 

 The goaded fish, experience bought too late. 

 Escapes, but oft stiU battles hard with fate ; 

 Unvanquish'd, summons to his instant aid 

 The oft-tried prowess of his trusty blade ; 

 Selects some boat and runs his ptiissant sword 

 Full many an inch within the fatal board. 

 There held no more, the doughty weapon yields. 

 And crimsons with his blood the briny fields. 



If all this be true, we cannot but assent to what the 

 same poet has elsewhere written touchiag the xiphias' 

 want of ' nous.' 



Nature her bounty to his mouth confined ; 

 Gave him a sword, but left unarm' d his mind. 



A common mode of taking the sword-fish in Sicily 

 with the harpoon, similar -in general plan to that we 

 have translated above, is in substance thus described by 

 Brydone : — ' A scout, mounted on the mast of a vessel, 

 notifies to his comrades the first glimpse he obtains of 

 the spadaj the fishermen (a particularly superstitious 

 class in Sicily) commence forthwith a measured chant,* 

 which they are taught to consider a's an indispensable 

 preliminary to success. When the spada, allured by the 

 ditty, has come sufficiently near the boat to be reached 

 by a missive, the most skilful harpooner throws his wea- 

 pon, attached to a long coU of cord, and seldom fails to 



* Brydone thinks, in Greek, but more probably in the classic 

 patois of their country, in which there are said to be many works 

 of merit, both original and translations ; one of the latter in par- 

 ticular, a Theocritus in verse, was highly recommended to us by 

 several Sicilians together, who seemed to forget, in their national 

 enthusiasm, that we could not, had we purchased a copy as they 

 recommended, have understood a word of it. 



