FISH.
Remember then to get a fine sea-sparrow,
And a rough-skinn'd buglossus, near the port
Of sacred Chalcis
But the Romans call the sea-sparrow rhombus; which, however, is a Greek name. And Nausicrates, in his Sea Captains, having first mentioned the sea-grayling, proceeds in this manner—
A. Those yellow-fleshed fish, which the high wave
That beats Æxona brings towards the shore,
The best of fish; with which we venerate
The light-bestowing daughter of great Jove;
When sailors offer gifts of feasts to heaven.
B. You mean the mullet, with its milky colour,
Which the Sicilian multitude calls rhombus.
140. So now, having given you, O Timocrates, the whole of the conversation which took place among the Deipnosophists on the subject of fish, we may conclude our book here; and unless you want some other kind of food, we will end by setting before you what Eubulus has said in his Lacedæmonians, or Leda;—
Besides all this you now shall have
A slice of tunny. a slice of pork,
Some paunch of kid. some liver of goat,
Some ram, the entrails of an ox,
A lamb's head, and a kid's intestines;
The belly of a hare, a pudding,
Some tripe, black-puddings, and a sausage.
Being sated, therefore, with all this, let us now take due care of our bodies, in order to be able to feed comfortably on what is coming next.
