Page:The Deipnosophists (Volume 2).djvu/89

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And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—

The cestra and the variegated perch.

123. The cuttle-fish is often mentioned. Aristophanes says, in his Danaides,—

And when I have the cuttle-fish and polypus.

And the penultima of this word has the acute accent, like that in the word [Greek: aitia], as Philemon tells us; like these words, [Greek: paidia], [Greek: tainia], [Greek: oikia]. But Aristotle says that the cuttle-fish has eight feet, of which the two lowest are the largest; and that it has two proboscises, and between them it has its eyes and mouth placed. And it has two teeth, one above and one below; and what is called a shell on its back. And the ink is contained in what is called the mutis, which answers to the liver; and it lies near its mouth, being something like a bladder. Its belly is wide and smooth, like the paunch of an ox. And the little cuttle-fish feed on small fish, extending their proboscises like fishermen's lines, and catching their prey with them. It is said, too, that when a storm comes, they seize hold of the rocks with their proboscises, as if they were anchors, and so fix themselves firm. And when the cuttle-fish is pursued, it discharges its ink, and is hidden in it, making it appear as if it were flying forwards. And it is also said, that when the female is struck by a harpoon, the male fish come to its assistance, dragging it on; but if the male fish be taken, the female fish flees away. But the cuttle-fish does not live more than a year, as neither does the polypus. But, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, Aristotle says—"The cuttle-fish and the squids swim together, being united together at the mouths, and also touching one another with their feelers, so as to join in that manner; and they also join proboscis to proboscis. But of all the molluscous fish, the cuttle-fish is the earliest in the spring to bring forth its young; and they do not bring forth at every season. But they go with young fifteen days; and when they lay their eggs, the male follows the female, and breathes upon the eggs and makes them firm. And they move in pairs; and the male is more variegated than the female, and blacker on the back."

124. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—

The polypus, likewise the cuttle-fish, And the swift-moving squid.

And we must also take notice of this, with reference to Speu