410 
PLIKY'S NATURAL HISTORY. 
[Book IX. 
fishes spawn only at stated periods : the eggs of this fish 
increase with the greatest rapidity.'^ It is a vulgar'^'^ belief 
that the mursena comes on shore, and is there impregnated 
by intercourse with serpents. Aristotle "^^ calls the male, 
which impregnates the female, by the name of ^^zniyrus;" 
and says that there is a difference between them, the muraena 
being spotted'^ and weakly, while the zmyrus is all of one 
colour and hardy, and has teeth which project beyond the 
mouth. In northern Gaul all the mursenae have on the 
right jaw seven spots,^^ which bear a resemblance to the con- 
stellation of the Septentriones,^^ and are of a gold colour, 
shining as long as the animal is alive, but disappearing as soon 
as it is dead. Yedius Pollio,^- a Eoman of equestrian rank, 
and one of the friends of the late Emperor Augustus, found a 
method of exercising his cruelty by means of this animal, for 
he caused such slaves as had been condemned by him, to be 
thrown into preserves filled with mursenas ; not that the land 
"'^ Hardoiiin says, that thougli this assertion is repeated by Pliny in 
c. 74 of the present Book, it is a mistake ; we learn, however, from 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, and Athena^us, B. vii., that the young 
of the muraena are remarkable for the quickness of their growth. 
''*' This vulgar belief is, however, followed by Oppian, Halieut. B. i. 
c. 556 ; AthenJBUs, B. vii. ; -^lian, Hist. Anim. B. i. c. 50, and B. ix. c. 66 ; 
and Nicander, Theriac, who, however, adds, if indeed it is the truth." It 
is also alluded to by Basil, in Hexaem. Homil. vii., and Ambrose, Homil. 
V. c. 7. 
Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 11, only quotes this story as he liad 
heard it, and does not vouch for its truth. Doro, as quoted by Athenceus, 
B. vii,, makes the zmyrus and the muraena to be of totally different genera. 
The zmyrus, he says, is without bone, the whole of it is eatable, and it is 
remarkable for the tenderness of the flesh . There are two kinds, of which 
the best, he says, are those which are black. 
The common muraDua, Cavier says, is spotted with brown and 
yellow, but there is a larger kind, with stronger teeth and brown all over, 
the Muraena Christini, of Risso. This, he has no doubt, is the zmyrus of 
the ancients. Modern naturalists, he says, have incorrectly called Mursena 
zmyrus, a small kind of conger, which has yellow spots upon the neck. 
Cuvier has already made some remarks on this passage in one of his 
Notes to c. 24 of the present Book. See p. 395. 
SI The Seven Terriones, or plough oxen. The constellation of Ursa 
Major was thus called by the Romans. 
^- This wretched man was originally a freedman, and though he was on 
one occasion punished by Augustus for his cruelty, he left him a great part 
of his property. He died b c. 15. He is supposed to be the same person 
as the one against whom Augustus wrote some Fescennine verses, men- 
tioned by Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 4. 
