402 
plii^y's natural history. 
[Book IX 
beard, that projects beneath the lower lip. The lutariiis/^ or 
mud-mullet, is held in the lowest esteem of all. This last is 
always accompanied by another fish, known as the sargus> 
and where the mullet stirs up the mud, the other finds aliment 
for its own sustenance. The mullet that is found on the coast 
is not^^ highly esteemed, and the most esteemed of all have a 
strong flavour of shell- fish. Fenestella is of opinion, that 
this fish received its name of mullet [muUus] from its resem- 
blance to the colour of the red or mullet-coloured shoes.^'^ The 
mullet spawns three times a year: at all events, the fry 
makes its appearance that number of times. The masters in 
gastronomy inform us, that the mullet, while dying, assumes 
a variety of colours and a succession of shades, and that the 
hue of the red scales, growing paler and paler, gradually 
changes, more especially if it is looked at enclosed in glass/^^ 
1^ Hardouin says that it is larger than the sea-mullet ; and that it dwells 
in muddy or slimy spots in the vicinity of the sea-shore. 
19 Aristotle., Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 5. 
20 Probably from the fact of its living in the mud. "Doctors differ'* 
on this point. Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 16, says that shore-fish 
are superior to those caught out at sea ; while Seneca, on the other hand, 
Nat. Quaest. B. iii. c. 18, says that rock-fish and those caught out at sea 
are the best. 
-1 He would almost seem to imply by this that they feed upon shell-fish : 
but Hardouin has a note to the effect, that Pliny does not mean that they 
live on shell-fish, as it would be impossible for them to break the shell 
to devour the fish within, but only that they have the same flavour as shell- 
fish. But query as to this explanation. 
22 On the other hand, Isidorus says that the mullet-coloured shoes were 
so called from the colour of the fish, which, indeed, is most probable. These 
shoes were made of a kind of red Parthian leather, probably not unlike our 
morocco leather. Festus seems to say that they were worn in general by 
all the patricians ; but the passage of Varro which he quotes, only shows 
that they were worn by the curule magistrates, the consul, praetor, and cu- 
rule ssdile. 
Hence their Greek name, rptyXa, according to Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 
1. 590. 
2* Seneca has a passage on this subject, Quaest. Nat. B. iii. c. 18, which 
strongly bespeaks the barbarous tastes of the Eomans. He says : " Amul^ 
let even, if just caught, is thought little of, unless it is allowed to die in 
the hand of your guest. They are carried about enclosed in globes of 
glass, and their colour is watched as they die, which is changed by the 
struggles of death into various shades and hues." And again : " There is 
nothing, you say, more beautiful than the colours of the dying mullet ; as 
it struggles and breathes forth its life, it is first purple, and then a paleness 
gradually comes over it ; and then, placed as it is between life and death, 
an uncertain hue comes over it.'* 
