THE SPANISH MACKEREL AND THE CEROES. 
I 97 
often expresses no more than size or coarseness—as in qualifying the 
words laugh, mushroom, chesnut, or radish,—it is quite possible in this 
case that it may merely be the translation of cavallo , which in that lan¬ 
guage not only means horse, but Mackerel as well. Concerning the 
opprobrious employment of this word to designate a certain class of vil¬ 
lains, called in Latin lenones , and ruffiani in Italian, M. Lacepede, after 
Belon, gives the following interpretation — 1 C’est a raison de la rencontre 
des maquereaux avec les petits aloses ou pucelles vers le temps ou celles-ci 
vont frayer avec les males, qu’on a donne ce vilain nom (maquererau), 
qu’il porte en France et dans quelques autres pays.’ ” 
