SEA FEOa. 253 



glistening with a like display of ivory fangs; unfishy 

 orbs resembling those of the ' star-gazer/* planted high 

 in the forehead ; a scaJeless skin, which is reeking, cold, 

 and clammy ; its surface from near the tail to the cor- 

 ners of the mouth as crawling with long, wriggling, ca- 

 runculated appendages, like so many worms in agony ; 

 the flesh ' boggy' to the touch, save where it is padded 

 out with an enormously distended liver, or just over the 

 branchial cavity, a pantry constantly replenished with 

 provisions ; add to all this a large pair of Caliban hand- 

 like fins planted close under the throat ; a fierce, male- 

 volent aspect, and an ungainly mode of wallowing rather 

 than swimming through the brine, — and it will be ap- 

 parent, even from this very imperfect sketch, that such 

 a fish-scarecrow could not fail to arrest attention, even 

 had there been no other claim to regard than his por- 

 tentous ugliness. But this is by no means the case. 

 What interested the earliest observers, and will continue 

 to interest mankind throughout all time, is, how a crea- 

 ture so clumsy, sluggish, and totally unarmed, should 

 never be taken with an empty stomach, or out of condi- 

 tion. The procedure by which he secures supplies has 

 been recorded by a classic cloud of witnesses, by Aris- 

 totle, Plutarch, Pliny, Oppian, ^han, etc. etc., who aU 

 give substantially the same account as would a Neapoli- 

 tan lazzarone, should the question be put whilst he is 

 rowing ' your excellency' across the bay, as to what he 

 knows about the rospe di mare — viz. that the said sea- 

 frog, aware of her inability to overtake, and of the efiect 

 of her ugliness in scaring away the fish on which she 

 has a mind to feed, descends to the bottom, and there 

 takes measures which are generally crowned with suc- 



* Called oipama-Kmos, and o ayios, ' tlie holy,' by the ancients, 

 and for a like reason now pesce-prete, tlie priest-fish, as the whites 

 of his eyes look constantly heavenward. 



