The Carp's Tongue . 
361 
lias no tongue ” {Cynthia s Bevels, i. 2), was derived from 
Aristotle. Gesner follows this classical authority, and 
says that this fish has only a piece of flesh-like substance 
in its mouth resembling a tongue, but which should be 
rather called a palate. Elsewhere Ben Jofison classes the 
“ tongues of carps, dormice, and camel’s heels ” together 
as special dainties {Alchemist, ii. 1); and Muffett, in his 
Healths Improvement, recommends the tongue of the carp 
as specially wholesome. 
Polonius justifies himself to the spies that he sets upon 
his son, by the assurance, “ Your bait of falsehood takes 
this carp of truth” {Hamlet, ii. 1, 63). This is Shak- 
speare’s only mention of the carp. 
The Bream was an inhabitant of the lakes in 
Cumberland and some of the smaller rivers. Bream 
It was so plentiful, Leland says, that in a 
Welsh lake near Brecknock, through which the river 
Lleveney runs, the breams, which appeared in May, came 
in such shoals as to break the nets {Itinerary, vol. v. p. 66). 
Walton quotes a French proverb to the effect that “ he 
that hath breams in his pond is able to give his friend 
welcome,” but this may be more on account of their 
quantity than their quality. 
It was recorded that the method which the bream, or 
brenna, adopted for his defence against the pike was to sink 
to the bottom of the stream and by stirring up the mud to 
prevent his enemy from observing him. Muffett writes:— 
“ Breams seem no other than fat carps: yet whiter of flesh, and 
finer nourishment. There is a kind of bream called scarus rumincis, 
which we call a cudbream, because his lips are ever wagging like a cow 
chawing the cud.” (Page 175.) 
The black sea bream, beetle, or old wife, was one of the 
commonest fish. Muffett says :— 
“ Olaffes, or rather old wives (because of their mumping and soure 
countenance), are as dainty and wholesome of substance as they are 
