338 FISHERIES—PRICE OF FISH—SPAWNING 
even with other passages; in Pap. Fayum Towns (A.D. 100), of 
2 drachme for fish ; in Pap. Petrie III. 107 (e), 6, 24 drachme 
for fish (third century B.c.) ; and in a Papyrus not yet (1918) 
published, 4 obols and 5 obols for a “male” Cestreus, or Mugil 
eapito. ‘ 
With salt fish, again, we have no certain leading. For 
2 dipla or double jars of this comestible the price was 2 drachme, 
but then their size is uncertain.! So again it doth not vantage 
us much to read of 240 drachme being given in A.D. 255 for 
“a jar of pickled fish” (Aewriov), because the size of the jar is 
still undetermined.2, Nor does “56 dvachme for 100 pieces 
of salt fish’ (third century A.D.) solve the problem because, 
although a “‘ piece of salt fish ’’ probably implied some definite 
weight, we have no data for discovering to what this amounted.3 
Nor again can we deduce anything definite from the statement 
that in the third century A.D. a jar (kspdmuov) of salt fish 
fetched 1 dvachma 1% obols. 
The superior derision with which some writers regard the 
simple, if inaccurate account, given by Herodotus of the spawn- 
ing of the Egyptian fish betokens their ignorance of the parable 
of the beam and the mote. 
If Herodotus erred, what (and this I keep reiterating, on 
the Kipling principle of “‘ lest we forget ’’) about the theorists 
for 2300 years as to the procreation of Eels ? 
Aristotle with his ‘‘ Entrails of the earth,’ Oppian with his 
“Slime of their bodies,’’ Helmont with his “‘ May Dew,” others 
with their ‘‘ Horse-hair,’’ and Walton with his “‘ Spontaneous 
Generation’ are they as correct zoologists as the Father of 
History ? With him procreation resulted from a semi-direct if 
inaccurate connection, but May Dews and Horse-hairs, etc., etc., 
what do they or what could they do in the galley of contact ? 
After which outburst I pass to Herodotus.* 
“* Gregarious fish are not found in any numbers in the rivers ; 
they frequent the lagunes, whence, at the season of breeding, 
they proceed in shoals towards the sea. The males lead the 
1 Pap. Oxyr., III. 520, 21, A.D. 143. 
* Berliner Eviechische Urkunden, I. 14, col. IV. 18. 
2 Egyptian Exploration Fund Annual Report, 1906-7, p. 9. 
‘ Bk, II. 93. 
