8 



The same Greek writer puts into the mouth of a distinguished 

 man- cook the speech which follows 1 : — 



" I took the Cuttles, cut off their fins, 

 Added a little fat, and then did sprinkle 

 Some thin shred herbs o'er all for seasoning." 



What were customs then, in part remain customs now. In the 

 south of Europe, at the seaports, Cuttles are still sold, to grace the 

 tables of epicures who admire this delicate food, and who, like 

 Athenseus, are of the opinion — 2 



" Don't be too expensive, still not mean, 

 Get some small Cuttle-fish, some little Squids." 



Such then are some of the manners, habits, and uses of a part of 

 the large family of the Cephalopods, (whom we best know by a por- 

 tion of their body, viz., the " cuttle-bone" of the chemists' shops, 

 that substitute for blotting paper in the days of our forefathers), 

 a family roughly to be defined as possessing a head crowned with 

 arms, in place of hair ; furnished with suckers instead of claws, and 

 invested with armour, which is beneath their skin. This armour 

 beneath the skin, in other words, an internal support, either the 

 Cuttle-bone of our shores, or the Sea-pen of naturalists, or the 

 Spirula-shell of the Atlantic, — this internal support forms a most im- 

 portant element in the division of the group, being the sign that all 

 the creatures which possess it, need extra means of protection from 

 their foes, and require additional aids to save them from extinction. 



And so we find, that the Cephalopoda, having an internal bone, 

 whether Cuttles or Squids, whether without fins or with fins, whether 

 with simple suckers or horny hooks, that these, in their varieties 

 (and the list is long), are possessed of an ink-bag, a most curious 

 provision of defence, by which they can blind their foes by jerking 

 ink at them, a habit man sometimes copies, when he throws dust in 

 other people's eyes — and we discover by investigation that they have 

 moreover two sets of gills, a vigorous circulation, sharp eyes, and well 

 furnished arms, gifts counterbalancing the evil of a naked body, 

 seemingly so defenceless. 



1 The Deipnosophists, Lib. vii. cap. 130. 



2 The Deipnosophists, Lib. vii. cap. 87. 



