Chapter V.
Why are the Pisces so well-toothed? They yield to each other in food: which is imitated by the greedy, who are chastised with vigorous reprimands.
12. But what shall I say about the density of teeth? For they do not have teeth on one side like an ox or a sheep: but both sides are armed with teeth; because they are in water, and if they were to turn their food for a long time, and not quickly transmit it, the flood of water could carry away and dilute their food from their teeth. Therefore, they have dense and sharp teeth, so that they can quickly bite, quickly finish their food, and easily and without any delay or hesitation transmit it. Finally, they do not ruminate; however, scarus alone is said to ruminate among them, as some say who have witnessed or experienced it or have studied to understand such things.
Indeed, even they themselves did not escape the violence of their own power, and they are subjugated by the greed of the more powerful everywhere. The weaker one is, the more exposed they are to prey. And many indeed feed on herbs and small worms. Yet there are those who devour each other and feed on their own flesh. Among them, the smaller is the food of the bigger: in turn, the bigger is attacked by the stronger and becomes the prey of another predator. Thus, it has become a practice that when one has devoured another, they are devoured by another, and both come together in one stomach, having been devoured by their own devourer, and they share in one body both the prey and the revenge. And this injury perhaps increased of its own accord, as it did not begin in us by nature, but by greed. Either because they were given for the use of humans, they were also made as a sign, so that in them we would see the faults of our customs, and we would beware of examples; lest anyone, more powerful, would attack someone inferior, giving an example of injury to himself. Therefore, whoever harms another, prepares a snare for himself, into which he himself falls.
And you are a fish, who invades others' entrails, who sinks the weak, who pursues the yielding until the depths. Be careful that while you pursue him, you do not fall yourself into a stronger one, and let him lead you into other people's snares, who avoids his own, and before he sees your suffering, he himself would have been afraid while pursuing his own. What difference is there between a wealthy one devouring the possessions of the weak with the greed of wickedness, and a catfish filled with the intestines of smaller fish? The wealthy man is dead, and his spoils were of no use to him, indeed his own infamy made him more detestable. He was caught like a silurus, and his useless plunder was discovered. How many are found in him who had devoured others? And you, wealthy man, have in your bosom another predator. He possessed the resources of a poor man which he had seized: you, by oppressing him, have added two fortunes to your own resources, and yet you are not satisfied with such an increase; and you say that you have avenged others, when you commit the same things that you avenge, unjust even more unjust, and unfair even more unfair, and greedy even more greedy. See to it that the same end does not find you as that fish: beware of the hook, beware of the nets. But you presume about your own power, that no one can resist you: the catfish presumed the same, that no one would throw a hook at him, no one would set nets for him, and if he got caught, he would break everything apart; and yet, he did not escape the spear or run into the stronger bonds of a net from which he could not free himself. Without a doubt, the more severe the injustices committed by humans, the less their own wickedness can protect them; rather, at some point, what is paid for with the price of wickedness will inevitably be dissolved, which is difficult to avoid.