CHAP. 7.—PLACES WHERE FISH EAT FROM THE HAND.
At many of the country-seats belonging to the Emperor the
fish eat[1] from the hand: but the stories of this nature, told
with such admiration by the ancients, bear reference to lakes
formed by Nature, and not to fish-preserves; that at Elorus, a
fortified place in Sicily, for instance, not far from Syracuse.
In the fountain, too, of Jupiter, at Labranda,[2] there are eels
which eat from the hand, and wear ear-rings,[3] it is said. The
same, too, at Chios, near the Old Men's Temple[4] there; and
at the Fountain of Chabura in Mesopotamia, already mentioned.[5]
1. Martial, B. iv. Ep. 30, speaks of this being the case at the fishponds
of Baiæ, where the Emperor's fish were in the habit of making
their appearance when called by name.
2. A village of Caria, celebrated for its sanctuary of Zeus Stratios.
Ælian, Hist. Anim. B. xii. c. 30, says that there was a spring of clear
water, within the sanctuary, which contained fish with golden necklaces and
rings.
3. "Inaures." He probably means ornaments suspended from the
gills, a thing which, in the case of eels, might be done.
4. "Senum delubrum." Ælian speaks of tame fish in the Old Men's
Harbour (limh\n) at Chios.
5. In B. xxxi. c. 22.