Cla& IV. o7UN Cie ay +1 
Viewhe Ss Tr LT oN G oR Awe 
Tevyay. Arif. Hifts an, lib. Paltinaca marina levis, Wil. 
Vili. c. 13.1%. 37+ Oppian. __ pifc. 67. 
Halieut. 1. 104. 11. 462. ' Fire Flaire. Raii yn pifee 
Paftinaca Plinzi ib.ix. c. 42, 38. 24. 
La Paftenade de mer, Tourte- Raia Paftinaca. Lin. /yf. 396. 
relle, ou Tareronde. Belon.83 Raia corpore glabro, aculeo 
Paftinaca. Rondel. 331. Ge/ner longo anterius ferrato, cauda 
pile. 679. apterygia. Arted. /ynon. 100% 
Steckroche. Grone'Tepel. Scho- Gronov. Zooph. No. 158. 
nevelde, 58. 
HE weapon with which nature hath armed 
this fifh, hath fupplied the antients with many 
tremendous fables relating to it. Phuy, lian, * and 
Oppian, have given it a venom that affects even 
the inanimate creation: trees that are ftruck by it 
inftantly lofe their verdure and perifh, and rocks 
themfelves are incapable of refifting the potent 
poiton. 
The enchantrefs Gzrce, armed her fon with a {pear 
headed with the fpine of the Trygon, as the moft ir- 
refiftible weapon fhe could furnifh him with, and 
with which he afterwards committed parricide, unin- 
tentionally, on his father Uly/fes. 
That {pears and darts might, in very early times, 
have been headed with this bone inftead of iron, we 
have no kind of doubt: that of another fpecies of 
this fifh being ftill ufed to point the arrows of fome 
of the South American Indians, and is, from its hard- 
nefs, fharpnefs, and beards, a moft dreadful weapon. 
* Hift. an. hb. it. c. 36. 
F But 
