403 PROSE HALIETJTICS. 



teeth — the crab^ the cuttle, and the conger* These four 

 hate each other with intense and equal cordiality, and to 

 that extent that it is not safe for a cook to leave any two 

 of them together even for a few minutes while preparing 

 separate saucepans for their reception ; for as to immers- 

 ing them in the same water, ' no wise man/ says Kira- 

 nides, ' any longer makes that mistake ; the experiment 

 has heen tried over and over again, and,' continues the 

 unblushing author, ' always with one result, viz. that on 

 removing the lid of the stew-pan, one or other of the 

 combatants is missing, and, notwithstanding its fierce- 

 ness and superior strength, generally the mursena.' 



Oppian's best bits are his animated descriptions of fish 

 sea-fights; here he is quite Homeric, and so much at 

 home in all the details of their submarine tactics and 

 strategics, that he appears almost as much a fish as a 

 poet ; the mortal engagements he celebrates, are as ex- 

 citing as the tussle between Greek and Trojan ; and pre- 

 ferable in this, that all his belligerents puU each other to 

 pieces without any responsibility on their part, or shock 

 to moral sense on ours : 



Unwise we blame the rage of warring fish. 

 Who urged by hunger must supply the wish ; 

 Whilst cruel man, to whom his ready food 

 Kind earth affords, yet thirsts for human blood. 



On this account we prefer his mailed heroes to Homer's, 

 and being fairly instructed, m limine, that fish have neither 

 innate ideas of justice nor pity, but that irresponsible 

 anarchy, bloodshed, and confusion reign through the 

 waste of waters, we listen straightway, and learn with 

 complacency unalloyed by any compunctious visitings. 



* Perotti is quoted by Aldrovandi as having often witnessed 

 combats between the conger and mursena, at PbzzuoU, in the Bay 

 of Naples. 



