Book 7
120
There is also the saurus, or lizard. Alexis mentions this fish, in his Leuce. It is a cook who is speaking:— A. Do you know how you ought to dress a lizard? B. I shall, when you have taught me. A. First of all Take off the gills, then wash him, then cut off The spines all round, and split him open neatly; Then when you've laid him flat, anoint him well And thoroughly with assafœetida; Sprinkle him then with cheese, and salt, and marjoram. And Ephippus, in his Cydon, gives a list of many other fishes, and among them he mentions the lizard, in the following lines:— Slices of tunny, and of glanis, Of shark, and rhine, and of conger, Cephalus, perch, and lizard too, And phycis, brinchus, also mullet, Sea-cuckoo, phagrus, myllus, sparus, Lebias, æolias, and sea-swallow, Thritta, and squid, and cuttle-fish, Sea-sparrow, and dracænides. The polypus, the squid, and orphus, The tench, th' anchovy, and the cestres, And last of all the needle-fish. And Innesimachus, in his Horse-breeder, says— Of fish with teeth serrated, you may eat The grim torpedo, the sea-frog, the perch, The lizard, and the trichias, and the phycis, The brinchus, and the mullet, and sea-cuckoo. There is also the scepinus; and this fish is mentioned by Dorion, in his treatise on Fish; and he says that it is also called the attageinus, or sea-woodcock.
121
There is also the sciæna. Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, says— Aeoliæ were there, and plotes too, And cynoglossi and sciathides. But Numenius calls this fish the Sciadeus, saying— Use then this bait, and you perhaps may catch, If such your wish, a mighty synodon, Or the quick leaping hippurus, or the phagrus Proud with his high-raised crest, or in a shoal Of trusty comrades, the fresh sciadeus. There is also the syagris; and this fish is mentioned by Epicharmus, in his Hebe's Wedding, and also in his Earth and Sea.
