Chapter 397

2572Hardouin remarks, that Aristotle says this only of the carabi, or cray-fish, and not of the crabs in general; and that, on the contrary, in B. v. c. 7, he says, that in the crab the male does not differ in conformation from the female, except in the opercule. There seems, in reality, to be no foundation for the statement here made by Pliny.

2573Both in the crab and the cray-fish, Aristotle says.

2574Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 24, calls this kind of crabδρομίας, the “runner,” from the great distance it is known to travel. He says, that they meet together, coming in one by one, at a certain bay in the Thracian Bosporus, where those who have arrived wait for the others; and that on finding that the waves of the Euxine are sufficiently violent to sweep them away, they unite in a dense body, and then waiting till the waters have retired, make a passage across the straits.

2575Cuvier remarks, that Hardouin is correct in considering this the same as the crab known in France as Bernard the Hermit (our hermit-crab), the Cancer Bernardus of Linnæus, a species of the genus now known as the Pagur. This animal hides its tail and lower extremities in the empty shells of whelks, or other univalves. Cuvier suggests that our author committed a slip of the pen, in using the word oyster here for shell-fish. This is theκαρκίνιον, probably, of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 15, and De Part. Anim. B. iv. c. 8; and it is most probable that, as Cuvier states, the realπιννοτήρηςof Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 4, and B. v. c. 14, was another of the crustacea, of which Pliny speaks under the same name in c. 66. This last is a small crab, that lives in the shells of bivalves, such as mussels, &c., but not when empty. See the Notes to c.66.

2576This circumstance is more fully treated of in B. xxxii. c. 19.

2577Our author speaks rather more guardedly here than usual; and Hardouin seems almost inclined to believe the story. Ovid also alludes to this story in the Met. B. xv. l. 370,et seq.“If you take off the bending claws from the crab of the sea-shore, and bury the rest in the earth, a scorpion will come forth from the part so buried, and will threaten with its crooked tail.”

2578Of animals covered with a thin crust.

2579The sea-urchin, the herisson de mer of the French, and the Echinus of Linnæus.

2580Cuvier remarks, that it does not use the spines or prickles for this purpose, but that it moves by means of tentacules, which it projects from between its prickles.

2581The Echinus cidaris of Linnæus; with a small body, and very long spines. The name, according to Hardouin, is from the Greek, meaning the “mother of the echini.”

2582See B. iv. c. 17.

2583The same, Cuvier says, with the Echinus spatagus of Linnæus.

2584Not “ova,” Cuvier says, but “ovaria” rather. Each urchin has five “ovaria,” arranged in the form of stars. They are supposed to be hermaphroditical, but there is considerable doubt on the subject.

2585The mouth of the sea-urchin, armed with five teeth, is generally turned to the ground, Cuvier says.

2586Plutarch, in his Book “on the Instincts of Animals,” Oppian, Halieut. B. ii. l. 225, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. vii. c. 44, all mention this.

2587This idea probably arose from the fact of their being sometimes found with stones sticking between their spines or prickles.

2588The thin-crusted animals.

2589Known to us as periwinkles.

2590It is now known, thanks to the research of Swammerdam, that the black points at the extremity of the great horns of the land snail, or Helix terrestris, and at the base of them in the water snail, are eyes.

2591“Pectines in mari;” literally, “sea-combs.” The French still call them by a similar name, “peignes.” They are known also in France as “coquilles de St. Jaques,” or St. James’s shells; probably, because worn by pilgrims who had visited the shrine of St. Jago, at Compostella. Indeed, the scallop shell was a favourite emblem with the palmers and pilgrims of the middle ages, who were in the habit of wearing it on their return in the hat.

2592He Latinizes the Greek name, calling it “unguis”—“a nail;” and, according to Varro, they were so called from their resemblance to the human nail. Pliny mentions them again in c. 87 of this Book, and in B. xxxii. c. 53, where he states that they are also called “dactyli,” or “fingers.” Cuvier says, that under this name are meant the pholades, a bivalve shell-fish, which give forth a very brilliant light.

2593Univalves, with a thick spinous shell.

2594The flat shell-fish, for instance, according to Cuvier, of the genus patella, or lepas.

2595Other fish of the genus patella, only more concave; the haliotes, for instance.

2596Forming a prolonged cone, Cuvier says, like the cerites.

2597The mouth of which is shaped like a crescent; such as the helices, Cuvier says.

2598The nerites, Cuvier says, which are cut into two hemispheres.

2599Such as many of the whelks, Cuvier says.

2600The whelks that have the edge turned inwards, so that one lip appears to fold under the other.

2601As no two naturalists might probably agree as to the exact meaning of the terms here employed, it has been thought advisable to give the passage as it appears in the original: “Jam distinctione virgulata, crinita, crispa, cuniculatim, pectinatim divisa, imbricatim undata, cancellatim reticulata, in obliquum, in rectum expansa, densata, porrecta, sinuata, brevi nodo legatis, toto latere connexis, ad plausum apertis, ad buccinum recurvis.”

2602In allusion, probably, to the streaks or lines drawn upon the exterior of the shell.

2603With the mouth wide open, like that of a person in the act of applauding.

2604By “ad buccinum recurvis,” he probably alludes to a whelk, or fish with a turbinated shell, resembling the larger conch or trumpet shell, which Triton is sometimes described as blowing.

2605Probably some of the Cypræa; which have been already alluded to in Note 6 to c. 41 of the present Book. Cuvier remarks, that there are many of the univalve shell-fish that float on the surface of the water, but none, with the exception of the argonauta or nautilus, are known to employ a membranous sail.

2606Cuvier says, that he has been informed that the scallop, by suddenly bringing together the valves of its shell, is able to make a bound, and leap above the surface of the water.

2607Ajasson says, that the words “purpuras, conchylia,” here signify not the fish themselves, but the various tints produced by them; the purpura and the conchylium being, in fact, exactly the same fish, though, as will be explained in c. 60 of the present Book, by various modes of treatment, various colours were extracted from them. See also B. xxi. c. 22.

2608Dalechamps notices here an ancient proverb, which says, “Qui nare vult, se exuit.” “He who wishes to swim, takes off his clothes.”

2609In c. 2 of the present Book.

2610In B. vi. cc. 24 and 28.

2611See B. vi. c.23. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says to the same effect, but calls it “Perimuda, a city of India.”

2612Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 13. It has been already remarked, in the sixth Book, that the ancients looked upon the Persian Gulf as forming part of the Erythræan or Red Sea.

2613The pearl itself, Cuvier says, is nothing else but an extravasation, so to say, of the juices, whose duty it is to line the interior of the shell, to thicken and so amplify it; and consequently, it is produced by a malady. It is possible, he says, for them to be found in all shell-fish; but they have no beauty in them, unless the interior of the shell, thenacre, or, as we call it, the mother of pearl, is lustrous and beautiful itself. Hence it is, that the finest of them come from the east, and are furnished by the kind of bivalve, called by Linnæus, “Mytilus margaritiferus,” which has the most beautiful mother of pearl in the interior that is known. The parts of the Indian sea which are mentioned by Pliny, are those in which the pearl oyster is still found in the greatest abundance.

2614All this theory, as Cuvier says, is totally imaginary.

2615Isidorus of Charax, in his description of Parthia, commended by Athenæus, B. iii., says, on the other hand, that the fish are aided in bringing forth, by rain and thunder.

2616From the Greekφυσήμα, “air-bubble.”

2617It sometimes happens, Cuvier says, that the secretion which forms the mother-of-pearl makes tubercles in the interior of the shell, which are the pearls adhering to the shell here spoken of.

2618Persius alludes to this in Sat. ii. l. 66. “Hæc baccam conchæ rasisse;” “to file the pearl away from its shell.”

2619From this passage we learn that the “tympana,” or hand-drums of the ancients, were often of a semiglobular shape, like the kettle-drums of the present day.

2620Cuvier remarks that this is not the fact: the concretions are perfectly hard before the animal leaves the water.

2621Isidorus of Charax, as quoted by Athenæus, B. iii.; and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. x. c. 20, make similar statements. Rondelet, in his treatise on Testaceous Fishes, B. i., complains of Pliny using the word “videt,” “sees,” in the present passage; but, as Hardouin says, he only uses it in a free sense, meaning, “is aware of the approach of,” or “has a perception of.”

2622Isidorus of Charax, in Athenæus, B. iii., tells a similar story; but modifies it by saying that the fish sometimes cuts off thefingersof the divers, and not the hands.

2623“Canes marini.” He calls by this name the same animal that a little further on he describes by the name of “canicula,” “dog-fish;” alluding, probably, under that name to various species of the shark. Procopius, in his book, De Bell. Pers. B. i. c. 4, has a wonderful story in relation to this subject. He says, that the sea-dogs are wonderful admirers of the pearl-fish, and follow them out to sea; that when the sea-dogs are pressed by hunger, they go in quest of prey, and then return to the shell-fish and gaze upon it. A certain fisherman, having watched for the moment when the shell-fish was deprived of the protection of its attendant sea-dog, which was seeking its prey, seized the shell-fish, and made for the shore. The sea-dog, however, was soon aware of the theft, and making straight for the fisherman, seized him. Finding himself thus caught, he made a last effort, and threw the pearl-fish on shore, immediately on which he was torn to pieces by its protector.

2624Such, for instance, as Megasthenes, quoted by Arrian in his Indica, and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8.

2625Hardouin suggests that a preferable reading to “vetuslate,” would be “venustate,” by its beauty; and indeed, Ælian, in the corresponding passage, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the chief is remarkable “for its size, and the extreme beauty of its colours.”

2626“Nucleos.” The Greek authors occasionally call them “stones” and “bones.” Tertullian calls them “maladies of shell-fish and warts”—“concharum vitia et verrucas.”

2627Cuvier says, that the most efficient mode of extracting all the concretions that may happen to be concealed in the body of the animal, is to leave the flesh to dissolve in water, upon which the concretions naturally fall to the bottom.

2628Isidorus and Solinus, however, say that the pearl is so called, because two are never found together. The derivation given by Pliny is, however, the more probable one. From the Latin “unio,” comes our word “onion;” which, like the pearl, consists of numerous coats, one laid upon the other.

2629Hence we must conclude that the word “margarita” is not of Greek, but Eastern origin.

2630Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, says, that the Indian pearls, and those which come from the Red Sea, are the best.

2631The laminæ of the lapis specularis, described by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 45.

2632“Exaluminatos.” It is clear from this passage that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, as he here clearly implies that the alum known to him was of a white colour. Beckmann, however, in his History of Inventions, asserts that our alum wascertainlynot known to the Greeks and Romans, and that their “alumen” was nothing else but vitriol, the green sulphate of iron, and that not in its pure state, but such as forms in mines. Pereira, however, in his Materia Medica, says, that there can be little doubt that Pliny was acquainted with our alum, but did not distinguish it from sulphate of iron, as he informs us that one kind of alum was white, and was used for dyeing wool of various colours. It is mentioned more fully in B. xxxv. c. 52, where he speaks of its use in dyeing.

2633These alabaster boxes for unguents are mentioned by Pliny in B. xxxvi. c. 12. They were usually pear-shaped; and as they were held with difficulty in the hand, on account of their extreme smoothness, they were calledἀλάβαστρα, fromἀ, “not,” andλαβέσθαι“to be held.” The reader will recollect the offer made to our Saviour, of the “alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious.” Matt. xxvi. 7. Mark xiv. 3.

2634Seneca, Benef. B. vii. c. 9, speaks of them as hanging in tiers from the ears of the Roman matrons, two and two; and he says that they are not satisfied unless they have two or three patrimonies suspended from each ear.

2635From their resemblance to “crotala,” used by dancers, and similar to our castanets.

2636That the pearls as fully bespeak the importance of the wearer, as the lictor does of the magistrate whom he is preceding. The honour of being escorted by one or two lictors, was usually granted to the wives and other members of the imperial family.

2637Even on the “socculus,” or “soccus,” a shoe or slipper which did not require any “obstragulum,” or tie. We find from Seneca, De Ben. B. ii. c. 12, and Pliny, B. xxxvii. c. 6, that Caligula wore gold and pearls upon his socculi.

2638Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xv. c. 8, states to this effect from Juba.

2639They are found also, Ajasson says, at the present day, in some of the coldest rivers and torrents of Auvergne.

2640Or “pinna,” the Greek name of this kind of pearl oyster.

2641Cuvier remarks, that he is here probably speaking of some spiny bivalve, perhaps the Spondylus of Linnæus.

2642“Grandini.” But Hardouin thinks, and probably correctly, that the meaning here of the word is the “measles of swine;” for Androsthenes, in Athenæus, B. iii., has a similar passage, in which he says: “The stone (i. e.pearl) grows in the flesh of the shell-fish, just as the measles grow in the flesh of swine.”

2643He is also mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12, and B. xxxvii. cc. 9, 11, 23, 35, and 50, as a writer on gems; but nothing else seems to be known of him.

2644Cuvier observes, that most of the rivers and lakes of the north of Europe possess the mya margarifera: the pearls of which, though much inferior to those of the East, are sufficiently esteemed to be made an article of commerce. Bad pearls, of a dead marble colour, are also very frequently found in the mussels taken off our coasts. Pearls have in modern times declined very considerably in value; those of about the size of a large pea can be purchased, of very fine quality, for about a guinea each, while those of the size of a pepper-corn sell at about eighteen-pence. Seed pearls, of the size of small shot, are of very little value. Tavernier speaks of a remarkable pearl, that was found at Catifa, in Arabia, the fishery probably alluded to by Pliny, in C. 54, and which he bought for the sum of £110,000, some accounts say £10,000, of our money. It is pear-shaped, the elenchus of the ancients, regular, and without blemish. The diameter is .63 of an inch, at the largest part, and the length from two to three inches. It is said to be in the possession of the Shah of Persia.

2645Tacitus, in his Agricola, says that pearls of a tawny and livid colour are thrown up on the shores of Britain, and there collected. Suetonius absolutely says, c. 4, that Julius Cæsar invaded Britain in the hope of obtaining pearls, in the weight and size of which he took considerable interest.

2646By the inscription placed beneath the thorax, or breast-plate.

2647The grand-daughter of M. Lollius, and heiress to his immense wealth. She was first married to C. Memmius Regulus; but was divorced from him, and married to the Emperor Caligula, who, however, soon divorced her. At the instigation of Agrippina, Claudius first banished her, and then caused her to be murdered. A sepulchre to her honour was erected in the reign of the Emperor Nero.

2648Caligula.

2649Or rather “betrothal entertainment,” “sponsalium cœna.” The “sponsalia” were not an unusual preliminary of marriage, but were not absolutely necessary.

26507,600,000 francs, Hardouin says; which would make £304,000 of our money.

2651“Ipsa confestim parata mancupationem tabulis probare.”

2652He was proprætor of the province of Galatia, ConsulB.C.21, andB.C.16 legatus in Gaul; where he suffered a defeat from certain of the German tribes. He was afterwards appointed by Augustus tutor to his grandson, C. Cæsar, whom he accompanied to the East inB.C.2. He was a personal enemy of Tiberius, which may in some measure account for the bad character given him by Velleius Paterculus, who describes him as more eager to make money than to act honourably, and as guilty of every kind of vice. Horace, on the other hand, in the ode addressed to him, Carm. iv. 9, expressly praises him for his freedom from all avarice. His son, M. Lollius, was the father of Lollia Paulina.

2653This does not appear to be asserted by any other author; but Velleius Paterculus almost suggests as much, B.ii., “Cujus mors intra paucos dies fortuita an voluntaria fuerit ignoro.” It was said that he was in the habit of selling the good graces of Caius Cæsar to the Eastern sovereigns for sums of money.

2654“Fercula.” See vol. i. p. 400, Note 3447.

2655“Unam imperii mulierculam accubantem.”

2656A fourth of the sum mentioned in Note2650.

2657“Corollarium.”

2658“Et consumpturam eam cœnam taxationem confirmans.”

2659“It was because pearls are calcareous, that Cleopatra was able to dissolve hers in vinegar, and by these means to gain a bet from her lover, as we are told by Pliny, B. ix. c. 58, and Macrobius, Sat. B. ii. c. 13. She must, however, have employed stronger vinegar than that which we use for our tables; as pearls, on account of their hardness and their natural enamel, cannot be easily dissolved by a weak acid. Nature has secured the teeth of animals against the effect of acids, by an enamel covering, which answers the same purpose; but if this enamel happens to be injured only in one small place, the teeth soon spoil and rot. Cleopatra, perhaps, broke and pounded the pearls pearl; and it is probable that she afterwards diluted the vinegar with water, that she might be able to drink it; though dissolved calcareous matter neutralizes acids, and renders them imperceptible to the tongue. That pearls are not peculiar to one kind of shell-fish, as many believe, was known to Pliny.”Beckmann’s History of Inventions, vol. i. p. 258, note 1,Bohn’s Ed.We may remark, however that as the story is told by Pliny, there is no appearance that Cleopatrapoundedthe pearl. It is more likely that she threw it into the vinegar, and immediately swallowed it, taking it for granted that it had melted.

2660Macrobius, Saturn. B. iii. says, “Monatius” Plancus. His name was in reality Lucius Munatius Plancus. He afterwards deserted Antony, and took the side of Octavianus; and it was on his proposal that Octavianus received the title of Augustus inB.C.27. He built the temple of Saturn, in order to secure the emperor’s favour. It is not known in what year he died.

2661“Omine rato.” He means, that in the result, it was only too true that Antony was “victus,” conquered, and that by his enemy Octavianus.

2662Claudius, or Clodius Æsopus, was the most celebrated tragic actor at Rome in the time of Cicero, and was probably a freedman of the Clodian family. Horace and other authors put him on a level with Roscius. From Cicero we learn that his acting was characterized chiefly by strong emphasis and vehemence. Cicero characterizes him as a “summus artifex,” a “consummate artist.” He was a firm friend of Cicero, whose cause he advocated indirectly more than once during his banishment from Rome. It appears from Pliny, B. x. c. 72, that he was far from frugal, though he left a large fortune to his spendthrift son, Clodius Æsopus. This man, among his other feats, dissolved in vinegar (or at least attempted to do so), a pearl worth about £8000, which he took from the ear-ring of Cæcilia Metella. It is alluded to by Horace, B. ii. Sat. iii. l. 239.

2663Or “conchylium.” We find that Pliny generally makes a difference between the colours of the “murex,” or “conchylium,” and those of the “purpura,” or “purple.” Cuvier says, that they were the names of different shell-fish which the ancients employed for dyeing in purple of various shades. It is not known exactly, at the present day, what species they employed; but it is a fact well ascertained, that the greater part of the univalve shell-fish, more especially the Buccini and Murices of Linnæus, distil a kind of red liquid. The dearness of it arose, Cuvier thinks, from the remarkably small quantity that each animal afforded. Since the coccus, or kermes, he says, came to be well known, and more especially since the New World has supplied us with cochineal, we are no longer necessitated to have recourse to the juices of the murex.

2664Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, says, “about six.” The murex of Pliny is theκήρυξof Aristotle.

2665Aristotle says, that the purple consists of three parts, the upper being theτράχηλος, or neck; the middle theμήκων, or poppy; and the lower theπυθμήν, or trunk; and that the juice lies between the first and second of these parts, or the throat. This juice, which Pliny calls “flos,” “flower,” “ros,” “dew,” and “succus,” “juice,” is distilled, Cuvier says, not from the fauces of the animal, but from the mantle or membranous tissue which lines the shell.

2666See B. v. c. 7. See also B. vi. c.36.

2667Which preceded the Roman consuls, who were clothed with the toga prætexta, the colour of which was Syrian purple.

2668Hardouin seems to think that “majestate pueritiæ” means “children of high birth;” but it was the fact that all children of free birth wore the prætexta, edged with purple, till they attained puberty. It is much more probable that by these words Pliny means the “majesty of youth,” in its simplicity and guileless nature, that commands our veneration and respect.

2669He means that the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator’s toga distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave, or narrow hem.

2670From Cicero, Epist. Ad. Attic. B. ii. Ep. 9, we learn that purple was worn by the priests when performing sacrifice. Ajasson, however, agrees with Dalechamps in thinking that this passage bears reference to the consuls, who wore purple when sacrificing to the gods.

2671The prætexta, for instance, the laticlave, the chlamys, the paludamentum, and the trabea.

2672On the occasion of a triumph, the victor was arrayed in a “toga picta,” an embroidered garment, which, from the present passage, would appear to have been of purple and gold. Pliny tells us, B. xxxiii. c. 19, that Tarquinius, on his triumph over the Sabines, wore a robe of cloth of gold.

2673Aristotle says the same, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, and De Partib. Anim. B. ii. c. 17. Cuvier says, that the buccinus and murex have a long neck, in which there is a tongue armed with little teeth, but very sharp, by means of which the animal is enabled to pierce other shell-fish.

2674“Conchylia;” other fish of the same kind apparently; as Pliny uses the word “conchylium” synonymously with “murex.”

2675“Præmia vitæ suæ.”

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