Kitap 7
96
There is also the sword-fish. Aristotle says that this fish has its lower jaw short, but its upper one bony, long, and in fact as large as all the rest of the body of the fish; and this upper jaw is what is called the sword; but that this fish has no teeth. And Archestratus says— But take a slice of sword-fish when you go To fair Byzantium, and take the vertebrae Which bend his tail. He's a delicious fish, Both there and where the sharp Pelorian cape Juts out towards the sea. Now, who is then so great a general, or so great a critic in dishes and banquets, as this poet from GelaThis is a pun on the similarity of the name Gela to γέλως, laughter, the compound κατάγελως meaning derision. And it is probably bor- rowed from Aristophanes, who says, Acharn. 606:— τοὺς δ’ ἐν καμαρίνῃ κᾀν γέλᾳ κᾀν καταγέλᾳ. (or, I should rather say, from Catagela), who, for the sake of his epicurism, sailed through those straits; and who also, for the sake of the same epicurism, investigated the different qualities and juices of each separate part of every fish, as if he had been laying the foundation of some science which was useful to human life?
