CYPEINID^ OR CAEPS. 259 



carp, — carp's tongue; the testimony of Aristotle therefore 

 goes far towards establishing the identity of our carp 

 ■with hjs Kinrptvo<i. 



That these two words are synonyms is rendered farther 

 probable from the KV7rpXvo<;'s second designation, XeTrt- 

 ScoTo'i, which occurs both in Herodotus and Athenseus. 

 The epithet scaly, applied to any member of a tribe 

 where all are so, must be intended to point out one 

 scaly beyond the rest ; and this accords perfectly with 

 the carp, as no fish of the same iaches is more broadly 

 squamose than he. Some other kinds, indeed — such as 

 mugils and mullets — ^have, as Beckmann truly observes, 

 large scales as well; but as they have not the fleshy 

 palate, and are besides well-known fish, the reference 

 of course cannot be to them. Agaia, though the ori- 

 ginal titular name has not in this instance, like that 

 of some other fish, maintained its place everywhere 

 throughout Greece, too much importance is not to be 

 attached to the partial extinction of a title ; whilst the 

 fact recorded by Belong that cyprinus was in his day the 

 still recognized designation for this fish in ^tolia, is, 

 we think, what Napoleon the Third would phrase ' a sig- 

 nificant circumstance' in favour of the identity of the 

 two. It is quite easy, indeed, to conceive how a fish like 

 the one in question, never held ia any esteem, and pro- 

 bably seldom brought to market, should come to receive, 

 in a country so much subdivided as Greece, a vast variety 

 of aliases (each province imposing some sobriquet of its 

 own) tni the original one was lost ; but how, unless it 

 were by regular transmission, the word mnrplvo'; should 

 ever have become iEtolianized, seems quite inexplicable. 

 The exception here really establishes the rule. The last 

 item of evidence in favour of the ancient Kvjrplvo's being 

 the carp is, that the possessors of both names have ob- 

 tained an equal celebrity for their fecundity : our own 

 carp being a noted breeder; whilst the wtt/swo?, accord- 



