Travels into Turkey: Containing the most accurate account of the Turks, and neighbouring nations, their manners, customs, religion, superstition, policy, riches, coins, &c.Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
History
Travels into Turkey: Containing the most accurate account of the Turks, and neighbouring nations, their manners, customs, religion, superstition, policy, riches, coins, &c.
Busbecq, Ogier Ghislain de
Turkey -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
of coarse Flax or Hemp, of which kind were the _Synodontes_, Fish armed
with strong Teeth; and if one made way for himself, all would follow
him, and so the whole Draught would escape, and not a Fish left for the
Fisher. To remedy this Inconvenience, (for I was aware of it) I stood
with a Pole in my Hand, beating the Water, that I might keep the Fish
from biting the Net. At which my Attendants could not choose but laugh;
yet, for all this, many of them escaped: So sagacious are Fishes where
they are in extream danger! But notwithstanding the Fugitives, we brought
a great many Fishes ashore, a Sea-Bream, Scorpion-Fishes, Dragon-Fishes,
Scare-Fish, Jule-Fish, Chane or Ruff-Fish, whose Variety did delight my
Eye, and the enquiry into their Nature, did hugely please my Fancy: So
that at Night I return’d home with my trimphant Vessel laden with Prey.
The next Day I presented _Hali Bassa_, and his Chief Steward, with Part
of what I had taken, who thought it a very acceptable Present.
Sometimes I took delight, with an Iron Spear made on purpose, to bring up
Shrimps or Cramps, which are there so thick, as if that Sea were stock’d
with them. Where I observed the Master-Shrimps lying two by two, the Male
and the Female, and sometimes more of them, of which _Cicero_, _Pliny_,
and _Athenæus_ speak so much. I confess, I think some of these Relations
concerning them are rather fabulous than true: For they say, that this
Shell-Fish doth gape in order to catch other small Fishes; and when she
hath got them, yet she shuts not her Shell till the _Pinncphylax_ bite
it, and by this warning she closes her Shell, and divides the Prey with
the _Pinncphylax_. The Figure of these _Pinnæ_ you have in _Bellonious_.
The sharp part of it sticks in the bottom of the Sea, as if it grew
there; and by these sticking Fibres, she draws in her Nourishment; as
appears by this, that when she is loosed from her hold, she dies for
want of Sustenance, as Herbs and Plants do. And it is probable, that
the _Pinnophylax_ chose this sort, as a Defence against other ravenous
Fishes, where it may lye quiet even in stormy Weather, and go in and out
at her pleasure. Yet I speak not this, to detract from the Credit of
those worthy Authors I mentioned before; but only to leave the matter to
more curious Enquirers. We quickly laded our Boat with these _Pinnæ_;
they are but coarse Fare, like Muscles, of which you would be soon weary;
but the Fishermen advised me to keep the _Pinnophylaxes_ apart, for they
are a grateful and nourishing Food.
Amongst the rest of the Islands, there is one untilled and uninhabited,
whither all sorts of Monsters do resort, Star-Fish, Saw-Fish, Grape-Fish,
Sea-Horses, prodigious Cockles, a round yellow Fish like an Orange; no
ordinary Fish there, but Thornback, and a certain Fork-Fish, with a
terrible Prickle. I remember, we took one of them, who, making at us, ran
herself through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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