Belfer, 
so - MO Le ae eee 
This fith was fometimes made the inftrument of 
a horrible punifhment for unfortunate gallants. It 
was in ufe both at. Atbens* and at Rome; but we 
doubt much whether it was a legal one: for we ra- 
ther fufpect it was inflicted inftantaneoufly by the 
injured and enraged hufband, at a feafon when 
Furor arma miniftrai. 
Fuvenal feems to fpeak of it in that light as well as 
Horace: the former, relating the revenge taken by 
the exafperated {poule, defcribes it as very various ; 
Necat bic ferro, fecat tile cruentis 
Verberibus, quofdam mechos et Mucixis intrat**. 
The paffage in Horace feems not to have been at- 
tended to by the critics; but when he mentions the 
diftreffes that the invader of another’s bed under- 
went, he moft certainly alludes to this penalty : 
Difcina tunica fugiendum eft, ac pede nudo ; 
Ne nwinmi pereant, aut Pyca, aut denique famat. 
The mullet is an excellent fifh for the table, but 
at prefent not a fafhionable one. 
The head is almoft fquare, and is flat on the top: 
the nofe blunt: lips thick. It has no teeth, only in 
the upper lip is a fmall roughnefs: between the 
eyes and the mouth is a hard callus. 
* Leoibus Athenienfium adulteri tv Zeyu deprehenfi pena fuis 
P2davedwoic. Raphani loco utebantur nonnunguam mugile pifce, 
duterdum Jcorpione. Caufauboni animedvers: in Atheneum. 46. I. 
€. 5. tom. vit edit. Lugd. 1621, 
** Satyr. x. 316. 
Tt Satyr. U. 4b. 1. 132. 
The 
