Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XXXII.<a id="note-link1" href="#note1">1</a> REMEDIES DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS., CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND. <a href="#note-link1">1</a> It is in the last six Books of Pliny, and those only, we regret to say, that we are enabled to avail ourselves of the new readings of the Bamberg MS., which has been so admirably collated by M. Ian. In a vast number of passages previously looked upon as hopelessly corrupt, or else not at all suspected of being in a mutilated state, this MS. supplies words and clauses, the existence of which in the original was hitherto unknown; indeed by its aid the indefatigable Sillig has been enabled, if we may be allowed the term, almost to rewrite the last six Books of Pliny. From a perusal of these new readings, as Dr. Smith has justly remarked, we have reason to infer "that the text of the earlier Books is still in a very defective state, and that much of the obscurity of Pliny may be traced to this cause."</p>

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CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.

At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the fish eat¹ from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse. In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda,² there are eels which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings,³ it is said. The same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men's Temple⁴ there; and at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already mentioned.⁵

1 Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fishponds of Baiæ, where the Emperor's fish were in the habit of making their appearance when called by name.

2 A village of Caria, celebrated for its sanctuary of Zeus Stratios. Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 30, says that there was a spring of clear water, within the sanctuary, which contained fish with golden necklaces and rings.

3 "Inaures." He probably means ornaments suspended from the gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done.

4 "Senum delubrum." Ælian speaks of tame fish in the Old Men's Harbour (λιμὴν) at Chios.

5 In B. xxxi. c. 22.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.