[155]The seat of the worship of the half-fish goddess, Addirga, Atergatis, Astarte, or Derceto.
[156]Theophrastus reckons coral among the precious stones, and Pliny would seem to be at a loss whether to consider it as an animal or a vegetable.
[157]From the Greek κεῖρειται, “cut short.”
[158]It is at the spawning season that this milky liquid is found in the oyster; a period at which the meat of the fish is considered unwholesome as food. We have a saying that the oyster should never be eaten in the months without an r; that the same, too, was the opinion in the middle ages is proved by the Leonine line:
“Mensibus erratis vos ostrea manducatis.”
“In the r’d months you may your oysters eat.”
[159]Literally, “Having beautiful eyebrows.”
[160]Those of Rutupæ, the present Richborough in Kent, were highly esteemed by the Romans. See Juvenal, Sat. 4. l. 141.
[161]They probably gave the name of “oyster” to some other shell-fish of large size. In Cook’s Voyages we read of cockles in the Pacific, which two men were unable to carry.
[162]From τρὶς, “thrice,” and δύκνω, “to bite.”