But, O ye earth and gods! I found a man, An honest fishmonger of pickled fish, Of whom I bought a huge fish ready scaled, Cheap at a drachma, for two oboli. Three days' hard eating scarcely would suffice That we might finish it; no, nor a fortnight, So far does it exceed the common size. After this Ulpian, looking upon Plutarch, chimed in,--It seems to me that no one, in all that has been said, has included the Mendesian fish, which are so much fancied by you gentlemen of Alexandria; though I should have thought that a mad dog would scarcely touch them; nor has any one mentioned the hemineri or half-fresh fish, which you think so good, nor the pickled shads. And Plutarch replied,--The heminerus, as far as I know, does not differ from the half-pickled fish which have been already mentioned, and which your elegant Archestratus speaks of; but, however, Sopater the Paphian has mentioned the heminerus, in his Slave of Mystacus, saying-- He then received the caviar from a sturgeon Bred in the mighty Danube, dish much prized, Half-fresh, half-pickled, by the wandering Scythians. And the same man includes the Mendesian in his list-- A slightly salt Mendesian in season, And mullet roasted on the glowing embers. And all those who have tried, know that these dishes are by far more delicate and agreeable than the vegetables and figs which you make such a fuss about. Tell us now also, whether the word τάριχος is used in the masculine gender by the Attic writers; for we know it is by Epicharmus. 89. And while Ulpian was thinking this over with himself, Myrtilus, anticipating him, said,--Cratinus, in his Dionysalexander, has-- I will my basket fill with Pontic pickles, (where he uses τάριχοι as masculine;) and Plato, in his Jupiter Illtreated, says-- All that I have amounts to this, And I shall lose my pickled fish (ταρίχους). And Aristophanes says, in his Daitaleis-- I'm not ashamed to wash this fine salt-fish (τὸν τάριχον τουτονὶ), From all the evils which I know he has. And Crates says, in his Beasts-- And you must boil some greens, and roast some fish, And pickled fish likewise, (τοὺς ταρίχους,) and keep your hands From doing any injury to us. But the noun is formed in a very singular manner by Hermippus, in his Female Bread-Sellers-- And fat pickled fish (τάριχος πίονα). And Sophocles says, in his Phineus-- A pickled corpse (νεκρὸς τάριχος) Egyptian to behold. Aristophanes has also treated us to a diminutive form of the word, in his Peace-- Bring us some good ταρίχιον to the fields And Cephisodorus says, in his Pig-- Some middling meat, or some ταρίχιον. And Pherecrates, in his Deserters, has-- The woman boil'd some pulse porridge, and lentils, And so awaited each of us, and roasted Besides an orphan small ταρίχιον.