FISH. one who does not know that both their juice and their meat are quite different. But Archestratus, that skilful cook, in his Golden Words, tells us—
When you're at Thasos buy a scorpion,
But let him not be longer than one cubit;
Avoid the larger sizes.
116. Then there is the scombrus, or tunny, which is mentioned by this name by Aristophanes, in his Gerytades. Icesius says that that species of tunny called scombrus is smaller in size, but more nutritious, than the species called colias; and also more juicy, though not more easily digested. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, mentions them thus:—
Sea-swallows, and mormyri, both of which
Are larger than the coliæ and the scombri,
But less than those whose name is thynnides.
117. The sargus is another fish. He (as Icesius tells us) is a fish of very exciting and astringent properties, and more nutritious than the melanurus, or blacktail. But Numenius, in his treatise on Fishing, says that the sargus is a very cunning fish as respects the catching him:—
The rich sea-blackbird, or the thrush who sports
Beneath the waves; the sargus too who rushes
Now here with sudden movement, and now there,
The greatest enemy to the fisher's nets.
And Aristotle, in the fifth book of his treatise on the Parts of Animals, says that the sargus brings forth its young twice in the year; once in the spring, and once in the autumn. And Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says—
The sargus, and the chalcis, and the . . .
But he speaks of the sarginus, or sargus, as an excellent fish, in the following lines—
There the sarginus was, the melanurus,
And the dear tænia, thin but delicious.
And in a similar manner Dorion, in his treatise on Fishes, speaks, calling them sargini and chalcides, on this very account. But the wise Archestratus says—
Now when the bright Orion's star doth set,
And the fair mother of the vinous grape
Doth shed her hair, then take a roasted sargus,
Well sprinkled o'er with cheese, of mighty size,
Smoking, and soften'd with sharp vinegar.
For he is hard by nature. And remember
This is the way all hard fish should be cook'd.
