182 PLUTARCH—CLEOPATRA—OPPIAN—ATHEN US 
and passionate pilgrims standing bare-legged, awaiting the 
cure of the vapxn! 
Complaints of gout are rife, even among our fish-affecting 
epigrammatists. From Hedylus, a singer rather of wine than 
of fish, we trace the lineage of the disease, ‘‘ of -Bacchus the 
limb-loosener, and of Venus the limb-loosener, is sprung a 
daughter, a limb-loosener, the Gout ’’! 3 
As to spawning, every author from Herodotus down to 
Izaak Walton has evolved various but mostly inaccurate 
theories. Oppian (I. 479 ff.) lays down that, as the passion of 
Love overcomes fish, the bodies of the male and female meet 
in the water and “‘ exude mingled slime,”’ which swallowed by 
the female produces conception. To this (I. 554 ff.) he allows 
an exception in the case of the murene. These mate with 
land serpents, ‘‘ who for a time lay aside their venom”: a 
monstrous connection which finds affirmation by Sostratus ? 
and by Pliny.? 
The touching charm of the passage # about the Naucrates 
ductor or pilot fish (whence its name of sjynrfp), which for some 
reason in more modern times has transferred its affection and 
services from the whale to the shark, compels quotation : 
‘* Bold in the front the little pilot glides, 
Averts each danger, every motion guides ; 
With grateful joy the willing whales attend, 
Observe the leader and revere the friend ; 
True to the little chief obsequious roll, 
And soothe in friendship’s charms their savage soul. 
Between the distant eyeballs of the whale 
The watchful pilot waves his faithful tail, 
With signs expressive points the doubtful way, 
The bulky tyrants doubt not to obey, 
Implicit trust repose in him alone, 
And hear and see with senses not their own ; 
To him the important reins of life resign, 
And every self-preserving care decline.” 5 
1 Anth. Pal., XI. 414. 2 Athen., VII. go. 
3 N. H., XXXII. 6. 4 Oppian, V. 66 ff. 
5 Cf. Pliny, IX. 68; Alian, II. 13; Plutarch, De Sol. Anim., 31. With 
this pilot fish must be mentioned that other, so famous in New Zealand waters, 
“‘Pelorus Jack.” A cetacean of the Dolphin tribe, he regularly met the coastal 
steamers between Wellington and Nelson. The old Maori chief, Kipa Hemi, 
