[200] Keller, op. cit., 347, confirms this habit of the fish, which, I suggest, is dictated by reason of food.
[201] Oppian, hab. V. 425 ff.; Pliny, IX. 9; Ælian, de nat. an., II. 8.
[202] The Mugil, especially Mugil saltator, vies with if it do not surpass the salmon in its power of leaping. It often (according to Oppian) jumps right over the surrounding nets. Our Dolphin a double duty pays, in (1) driving the fish, and (2) killing the successful saltatores.
[203] In Arist., N. H., IX. 48, the Dolphin “seems to be the swiftest of all the creatures, marine or terrestrial,” but in N. H., IX. 37, he credits the grey mullet as being “the swiftest of fishes.”
[204] Pliny, IX. 9: “Sed enixioris operæ, quam in unius diei præmium conscii sibi opperiuntur in posterum: nec piscibus tantum sed et intrita panis e vino satiantur.”
[205] In Lapland the “sea-swallows” render great aid in the salmon season. For some cause these small marine birds elect to follow the inward and outward course of the fish, and are thus infallible guides to the fishermen, with whom they become so tame that they will light on their fingers, and take, if not “the choicest of the spoil,” scraps of fish. No wonder they are termed “The Luck-bringers.” See S. Wright, The Romance of the World’s Fisheries (London, 1908), p. 69.
[206] Oppian, hal., V. 447. In mediæval times instances of dolphins aiding fishermen are related by Albertus Magnus, De Animalibus, VI. p. 653, and by Rondolet, Libri de piscibus marinis, etc. (Lugduni, 1554-5), XVI. p. 471. At the present day in Lake Menzalah porpoises shepherd the fish: the Egyptian, however, spares to his helpers their lives, but naught else. The natives of Angola were much more recognisant of service, as an interesting description by an old traveller of a fish drive there evidences: “They use upon this coast to fish with harping irons, and waite upon a great fish which cometh once a day to feed along the shoare which is like a grampus. Hee runneth very near the shoare, and driveth great skuls of fish before him; the negroes runne along and strike their harping irons about him, and kill great store of fish, and leave them in the sand till the fish hath done feeding and then they come and gather up the fish. This fish will many times runne himself aground, but they will presently shore him off again, which is as much as four or five men can doe. They call him Emboa, which is in their speech a Dogge: and will by no means hurt or kill any of them.” The Strange Adventures of Andrew Battell of Leigh in Essex. (Haklutus Posthumus or Purchas his pilgrimes (ed. Glasgow, 1905-7), vol. VI. p. 404.)
[207] The evidence is collected and discussed by K. Klement, Arion (Wien, 1898), pp. 1-64, and by H. Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen (Bonn, 1899), pp. 138-180.
[208] Aegyptiaca, book v. frag. 6 (Frag. hist. Gr., III. 510 f. Müller).
[209] Pausanias, III. 25. 7, recalls that among the votive offerings at Tænarum “is a bronze statue of the minstrel Arion. Herodotus tells his story from hearsay, but I have actually seen the Dolphin at Poroselene that was mauled by fishermen and testified its gratitude to the boy who healed it. I saw that Dolphin answer to the boy’s call, and carry him on his back when he chose to ride.”