MURiENIDiE. 401 



some etymologists derive the name mursena from fivpeiv, 

 to flow ; as though to float and to flow were the same 

 thing. Now, it happens that. one of her Greek epithets is 

 1? -irTyxoTr]* fivpaiva KoKov/jLevr} (Archestratus), ' the floater 

 called a mursena' (whence the Latin syiionymj fluta^ of 

 Pliny, and whence also, perhaps, and parenthetically, the 

 fat Yarmouth herrings called 'bloaters/ i.e. floaters), 

 there can, therefore, be no doubt that TrXtor^ and fivpaiva 

 do not designate quite the same thing; and if the as- 

 signed derivation from fivpeiv be adopted, as in all pro- 

 bability the right one, we would suggest that the de- 

 rived word points rather to the characteristic flowing or 

 gliding motion of this fish through the water, than to the 

 fact of its floating on the surface, which has procured it 

 a second name. 



Besides these propensities to grow fat and to float, the 

 muraena ofiers, for a fish, a far more remarkable pheno- 

 menon — a tendency to hydrophobia and canine madness : 

 the authenticity of this report rests indeed solely upon the 

 authority of Columella ; but as he is a cautious writer, 

 and one not prone to over-tax the credulity of the reader, 

 his testimony, though we believe hitherto unsupported, 

 is entitled to respect, and the point at any rate remains 

 an open one for future investigators to decide. Colu- 

 mella does not say whether the bite from a mad mursena 

 is worse in its consequences than the wounds inflicted by 

 this passionate and ill-conducted fish are at all times held 

 to be. 



Waging a perpetual war upon all swimmers smaller or 

 weaker than herself, there are three marine foes in par- 

 ticular upon whom the muraena delights to fasten her 



* The verb TrKaai signifies to swim and to sail; but as men 

 swim and vessels saU on the sv/rface, the radical meaning of jtXoxb 

 is, in fact, to float. Euripides uses the word TrXayrrip, floater, for a 

 sailor or Jack-a-float. 



