Note 227 — Chapter IV · THE DOLPHIN—HERODOTUS—THE ICHTHYOPHAGI—THE TUNNY

Their method was to let down by a rope from the boats blocks of wood (heavily weighted with lead) to which were attached great spikes and hooks, which on reaching the bottom were drawn to and fro, with the result that “here gasping Heads confess the killing Smart, | There bleeds a Tail, which quivers round the Dart.” Cf. a fragment from Menander’s The Fisherman, frag. 12 in the Frag. comicor. Graec., IV. 77, Meineke, “The muddy sea which nourishes the great Tunny.” Sophron’s Tunnyfisher seems the earliest mime, where this fish figures.