[613] Athenæus, XII. 15 and 20. If the fish found favour helluously, medically condemnation attended it. Hippocrates warns against its use; Seneca, _Nat. Qu._, III. 19, 3, terms it “gravis cibus.” If to the gastronomic virtues of the _Murænidæ_ both Greeks and Latins were more than kind, to other characteristics they were far indeed from blind—_e.g._ their slipperiness, etc., was proverbial. See Lucian, _Anach._, I, and Plautus, _Pseud._, II. 4, 57. Further, did the fish but hap in a dream, then good-bye to all hopes and desires, which slipped away, as surely as Alice’s “slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.” See Artemidorus, _Oneirocritica_, II. 14. The phallic character of the fish prevalent in ancient times continues in modern Italy, _e.g._ the proverbs (1) about holding an Eel by his tail, and (2) that when it has taken the hook, it must go where it is drawn. De Gubernatis, _op. cit._, II. 341. [614] For the many classical theories on Eel procreation see Schneider, _op. cit._, pp. 36 ff. [615] Aristotle, _H. A._, IV. 11. [616] Pliny, IX. 23 and 74, and X. 87. In IX. 38 he asserts that Eels alone of all fish do not float when dead. Aristotle, who (_N. H._, VIII. 2) is, as usual, his authority, confines himself to noting this characteristic as not possessed “by the majority of fish,” and accounts for it by the smallness of stomach, lack of water in it, and want of fat; he states, however, that when fat they do float. [617] Accuracy as to procreation was not Father Izaak’s strong point, as his theory that pike were bred from pickerel weed shows. It was on this point that Richard Franck, author of _Northern Memoirs_ (written in 1658, but unpublished till 1694), with the invincible contempt of the fly-fisher for the bait-fisher, so jumped on Walton, that “he huffed away.” See Sir H. Maxwell, _op. cit._, IV. 123. [618] Robinson, _op. cit._, 73. This seems a bit of bogus mythology. Perhaps Natalis Comes may be responsible. [619] It is curious to find that a similar belief was held in Sardinia: according to Jacoby, the water beetle (_Dytiscus roeselii_) is there believed to be the progenitor of the Eel, and is accordingly called the “Mother of the Eels” (Turrell, _op. cit._, p. 37). [620] _Migrations of Fishes_, London, 1916. [621] J. Schmidt found the youngest known stages of _Leptocephalus_, the larval stage of eels, to the west of the Azores, where the water is over 2000 fathoms deep: they were one-third of an inch in length and so were probably not long hatched. [622] It is believed that no Eels return to the rivers, and that they die not long after procreation. “They commence the long journey, which ends in maturity, reproduction, and death.” _Presidential Address_, British Association, Cardiff, 1920. [623] There is in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington an excellent collection of specimens, illustrative of the development of the Eel. CHAPTER XVIII THE NINE FISH MOST HIGHLY PRIZED