Chap. 41.] 
riSHES. 
413 
gress is impeded, and that it is from, this circumstance that it 
takes its name.* For this reason, also, it has a disgraceful 
repute, as being employed in love philtres,^ and for the pur- 
pose of retarding judgments and legal proceedings — evil pro- 
perties, which are only compensated by a single merit that it 
possesses — it is good for stapng fluxes of the womb in preg- 
nant women, and preserves the foetus up to birth : it is never 
used, however, for food.* Aristotle^ is of opinion that this fish 
has feet, so strong is the resemblance, by reason of the form and 
position of the fins. 
Mucianus speaks of a murex^ of larger size than the purple, 
with a head that is neither rough nor round ; and the shell 
of which is single, and falls in folds on either side."^ He tells 
us, also, that some of these creatures once attached themselves 
to a ship freighted with children^ of noble birth, who were 
being sent by Periander for the purpose of being castrated, 
and that they stopped its course in full sail ; and he further 
2 'Atto tov 'ix^iv vrjag. "From holding back ships," 
2 Used for the purpose of bringing back lost love, or preventing ineon- 
gtancy. 
* Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B, ii. c. 17. 
^ Hardouin says that it is very possible that Aristotle may have written 
to this effect in some one of the fifty books of his that have perished, but that 
such is not the case in his account given of this fish in his Hist. Anim. B. 
ii. c. 17, for there he expressly says, " There are some people that say this 
fish has feet, whereas it has none at all ; but they are deceived by the fins, 
which bear a resemblance to feet." Cuvier says he cannot see in what way 
the fins of the remora, or sucking-fish, resemble feet, any more than those 
belonging to any other fish. 
6 Cuvier says, that tlie shell-fish to which Pliny here ascribes a power 
similar to that of the remora, is, if we may judge from his description of 
it, of the genus called Cyprsea, and has very little doubt that its peculiar 
form caused its consecration to Venus, fully as much as its supposed mi- 
raculous powers. He also remarks that Hardouin, in his Note upon this 
passage, supposes an impossibility, in suggesting that the lips of this shell- 
fish can bite the sides of a ship ; these lips or edges being hard and im- 
moveable. For some curious particulars as to the peculiar form of some 
kinds of Cypraea, or cowry, and why they more especially attracted atten- 
tion, and were held sacred to Venus, see the discussion on them, in the 
Defence made by Apuleius against the charge of sorcery, which was brought 
against him. 
Eondelet, B. xiii. c. 12, says that this kind of shell was formerly used 
for the purpose of smoothing paper. 
8 Herodotus tells us, B. iii. c. 48, that these were 300 boys of noble 
families of the Corcyraeans, and that they were being sent from Periander 
of Corinth, to Alyattes, king of Sardes. 
