The mention here of the Tunny makes appropriate some notice of a fish, which looms large in nearly all our authors. Most of them dilate at length on its multitude, migrations, habits, and size. Its economic value as a food asset, then and now, finds ample recognition by writers separated over two thousand years (such as Aristotle and Apostolides), and in its current title of “The Manna of the Mediterranean.” [Illustration: CUTTING UP THE TUNNY. From Gerhard, _Aus. Vas._, Pl. 316, 2.] It is curious that the first two fish, the Dolphin and Tunny, on which I have occasion to comment because of the chronological sequence of Hesiod and Herodotus, should have greater attention paid them and should occupy more space in ancient writers than any other. The reasons, however, are very dissimilar. The Dolphin by its engaging habits of aidfulness and of comradeship—to it scarcely anything human seems alien—evoked gratitude and liking. The Tunny, apart from the wonder awakened by its multitudes and migrations, compelled an economic interest from its food-producing quantities and qualities. Rhode has excellently summarised the dissemblance: “_Delphinus veterum cordibus atque animis se insinuavit, thynnus gulis atque ventriculis._”[225] The annual campaign of the Tunny fishing, lasting from May 15 to Oct. 25, was based on a regular and thorough organisation. All the boats of a given section of the coast acted under the orders of an elected Captain, whose word was law. Descriptions of fishing for Tunny and Pelamyde—the name given to the young Tunny from his habit of burying himself in the mud (πήλῳ μύειν),[226] a derivation often attributed to Aristotle, see _H. A._, VIII. 15, or of herding together (πέλειν ἅμα) according to Plutarch—may be found in Aristotle, _N. H._, IV. 10, and VIII. 15, in Pliny, _H. N._, IX. 53, in Ælian, _de nat. an._, XV. 5 and 6, and in Oppian, _hal._, IV. 531 ff. The story by the last of the Thracians piercing and taking myriads of mutilated Pelamydes from the mud, in which they have for warmth ensconced themselves, merits reading if only for his indignant burst: “The various Tortures of the bleeding Shoal Command a Pity from the stoutest Soul.”[227] Aristophanes (_Hipp._, 313) compares Cleon to the watch posted on a cliff or height to signal the advent of the Tunnies, a position (as Theocritus [III. 26] and Oppian [_hal._, IV. 637] show), very similar to that of the “Hooer” in the pilchard fishery of Cornwall at the present day.