[2551] “Caliculis;” literally, “little glasses.” Its “acetabula,” or suckers, are so called from their peculiar shape.
[2552] Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. iv. c. 2, says the same; but, as Hardouin observes, he must mean the Ionian sea.
[2553] Cuvier says, that this is only a reproduction, under another name, and with other details, of the story of the nautilus or argonauta; but under the impression that the polyp is not the animal which owns the shell, but is only its associate. It has also been asserted in modern times, he says, that the polyp has seized this shell by force from some other animal, in order to convert it into its boat; but the opinion has not been adopted, as the shell of the nautilus has been never found in the possession of any other animal.
[2554] Probably borrowed from the Greeks, who called it ἄκατος. It is supposed to have been a small boat, similar to the Roman “scapha;” like our “skiff” probably.
[2555] The “rostrum” of the ancient ships of war.
[2556] “Palmulis.” This word also means the blade or broad part of an oar; in which sense it may, perhaps, be here taken.
[2557] “Locusta;” literally, the “locust” of the sea. By this name is meant, Cuvier says, the “langouste” of the French (our cray-fish), which has no large forcipes, and has a thorax covered with spines; the Palinurus quadricornis of the naturalists. This is clearly the κάραβος of Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 23; for we generally find it thus translated by Pliny, when he borrows anything from that philosopher. We know that the body of this animal was spiny, from the fact that Tiberius, as we learn from Suetonius, cruelly caused the face of a fisherman who had offended him, to be rubbed with a locusta.
[2558] Aristotle, and Theophrastus, in his “Treatise on Animals which conceal themselves,” state to a similar effect.
[2559] Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 4, states to a similar effect.
[2560] Aristotle, loc. cit., and Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 25, state to the same effect.