The Greeks and Romans seem to be first in their regard for the eel, and many tales come down to us of the esteem in which he was held in their ancient times. The Romans cultivated eels, tamed them, made pets of them; and the orator, Hortensius, rival of Cicero, wept bitterly at the death of his favorite mursena. They even sacrificed their slaves to the eel ponds, a practice quite possible to men who plundered nature to serve peacocks' brains and parrots' tongues at their tables. The Egyptians are said by one account to have abhorred eels utterly, but it is certain that at one time eel-worship shows them to have also judged the eel to rank with the gods. The Scotch taboo the eel entirely, while the Hebrew race placed it under the ban which applies to scaleless creatures of the fish tribe. The conger eel is scaleless, but the common eel does not deserve this calumny, for its minute oblong scales, curiously arranged in groups instead of imbricated regularly as in the common fishes, are easily seen on careful inspection. The ancient Anglo-Saxon, on the other hand, was passionately fond of eels, which passed current as a medium of exchange. The race has always been partial to them and Londoners of to-day consume them in great quantities. Some ancient peoples used them in sacred offerings. Terracina, a seaport of Italy, being besieged by the Turks, the inhabitants vowed twenty thousand eels per annum to St. Benedict. The account relates that a 'fond memory of stewed eels' touched the saint and the siege was raised. He got his eels, and the Benedictine monks have been accustomed to render the yearly tribute to their saintly patron.
The prominence of eels among fishes is of course largely dependent upon their great abundance and almost world-wide distribution. Our common American eel is found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Mexico, but is absent from Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean and is present in the eastern Pacific only by transplantation at the hands of man. It inhabits both the sea and inland waters, but was unknown above the falls of Niagara until artificially introduced. Its natural history even yet is not as well known as would be expected. Most fishes which live alternately in fresh and salt water are anadromous, and feeling the sea their proper home migrate at certain seasons up the rivers, where they spawn in fresh waters and return to the salt until the next season. But the eel has been supposed to reverse this process, and, being at home in the sweet water, to descend to the sea to deposit the eggs, which are numbered in millions, and then die, its span of life naturally ended. The young eels resulting, driven by the impelling force of instinct, must then find their way back to the haunts of their parents. Well-known facts speak for this view. Young eels in the spring are known to ascend streams in countless numbers, and the phenomenon has long been well recognized as eel-fairs, or eel-fares.
