Alexis, in his Galatea, says—
I counsel you to season well and stuff
Torpedos whole, and then to roast them thoroughly.
And in his Demetrius he says—
Then I took a torpedo, calculating
If my wife touch'd it with her tender fingers
That they would get no hurt from its backbone.
96. There is also the sword-fish. Aristotle says that this fish has its lower jaw short, but its upper one bony, long, and in fact as large as all the rest of the body of the fish; and this upper jaw is what is called the sword; but that this fish has no teeth. And Archestratus says—
But take a slice of sword-fish when you go
To fair Byzantium, and take the vertebræ
Which bend his tail. He's a delicious fish,
Both there and where the sharp Pelorian cape
Juts out towards the sea.
Now, who is then so great a general, or so great a critic in dishes and banquets, as this poet from Gela[7] (or, I should rather say, from Catagela), who, for the sake of his epicurism, sailed through those straits; and who also, for the sake of the same epicurism, investigated the different qualities and juices of each separate part of every fish, as if he had been laying the foundation of some science which was useful to human life?
FISH.
97. There is also a fish called the orphos (ὄρφως); but the word is also spelt with an ο (ὄρφος), as Pamphilus tells us. But Aristotle, in the fifth book of his Parts of Animals, where he says that the growth of most fish is very rapid, says, "The orphos also grows to a large fish from a little one with great rapidity; but he is a carnivorous fish, with serrated teeth, and of a solitary disposition. And there is this peculiarity in him, that it cannot be ascertained what means he has of propagating his species, and that he can live a long time after he has been cut in pieces. He is also one of those fish which bury themselves in holes during the winter season, and he is fond of keeping close to the land, rather than of going into the deep sea; but he does not live more than two years. And Numenius, speaking of this fish, says—
Now with such baits as these it is not hard
To draw the lengthy scorpion from his bed,
Or the rough orphus: for they're easily caught.