Need help identifying a fish/jellyfish ?

[Nerine]

My cousin needs help identifying a fish! any ideas?

"Anyone know a marine biologist who can explain what a "perewig" fish or jellyfish is? Can't find it by search engine.
This is the description from 1634: "The Perewig is a kind of fish that lyeth in the ooze like a head of haire, which being touched conveyes it selfe leaving nothing to bee seene but a small round hole."

[Nerine]

What creature has a "head of hair" that retracts when touched? leaving a small round hole....

[Darth]

never heard of a perewig and what is  1634 is that year?? what reference is this from?

[Darth]

and from the cryptic description it can be anything things like aptasia, when touched retract into the rock work, feather dusters retract leaving a whole in the tube, all of these things can have what can be considered a hair like appearance

[Nerine]

Sorry! it's late Yeah the year is 1634, hence the old english

It's from a book.

Here is the passage it's contained in:

The Oifters be great ones in forme of a fhoo horne, fome be a foote long, thefe breede on certaine bankes that are bare every fpring tide. This fifh without the fhell is fo big that it muft admit of a devifion before you can well get it into your mouth. The Perewig is a kind of fifh that lyeth in the oaze like a head of haire, which being touched conveyes it felfe leaving nothing to bee feene but a fmall round hole.
Mufcles be in great plenty, left onely for the Hogges, which is they were in England would be more efteemed of the poorer fort. Clamms or Clamps is a fhel-fifh not much unlike a cockle, it lyeth under the fand, every fix or feaven of them having a round hole to take ayre and receive water at.

[Darth]

what is this for? As I understand this it is some fish/or something that lives in the mud, (lowtide) it can a foot long so it is long and skinny like hair, so I assume eel shaped or maybe sea snake, something that would burrow back into the tide bed so it may not be a fish, this whole things seems to be an interpretation. Why does your cousin need to know the fish name? The name Perewig could just be what this type of animal was called in said town

[JetJumper]

The "periwig fish" is
probably the starlet sea
anemone, which lives in
salt marshes. Thanks to
Alysa Farrell for
help in identification.

Source: http://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.ca/2013/02/watery-villagers-sea-creatures-of.html

[Darth]

Source: http://marybarrettdyer.blogspot.ca/2013/02/watery-villagers-sea-creatures-of.html

you're sir are an internet search guru,
But alas even this is just a "guess" seems no one knows what it really is as with the anenome rarely getting over half inch I can't see how it would make into this passage, as the passage (my mistake earlier ) describes oysters almost a foot long and oysters, with further pondering and the talk of all the shell fish, it leads me to believe it could be a soft shell clam. (yeth in the oaze like a head of haire, which being touched conveyes it felfe leaving nothing to bee feene but a fmall round hole) as the siphons on the shells can be considered hair, which would close up when touched

[dpatte]

Since my gggggrand-dad was a fishmonger (fresh fish salesman) in England about 200 years ago, I could make a few suggestions:

- since the writing is from the 1600s, the s at that time was often written as a tall skinny letter that more often looked like an f than an s. I like the spelling you offered for oysters (Oifsters).

- the word fish in middle English meant anything that lived in the water, anything, for example, crayfish or shellfish. Even a clam (or clamm, as they mention).

- the description suggests to me that they are talking about a type of mussel that when disturbed burrows into the sand leaving only a small hole.

[Nerine]

thanks for all the suggestions...it's not an eel as there are already eels listed

yep! I LOVE Old English I might have to turn all my s's into f's confuse a few people right??? I just copied from the book

a friend suggested an anemone as it said head if hair and there are quite a few in the body of water that are suggested...and mussels are also described in great detail in the passage before and after

My cousin is a writer, and she's fact checking

[Darth]

i still say soft shell clam as the passages discuss types of shellfish and the soft shell would fit the description well

[Nerine]

if only we can travel back in time

thanks again everyone!

Finding info from old transcripts and understanding what it is today can be difficult. Especially in aquatic life because names change!

[dpatte]

at least they now change less, thanks to Linneaus!

[rockgarden]

My guess would have been eel, but you say that that is gone. Crabs hide out in holes but again they aren't a foot long and skinny. Some fish of fairly substantial size will go in and out of mud burrow holes but beyond that "lost in the translation" probably applies.
____

Completely off topic (almost):
Something a bit different for those have problems reading old English!!!

7H15 M3554G3
53RV35 7O PR0V3
H0W 0UR M1ND5 C4N
D0 4M4Z1NG 7H1NG5!
1MPR3551V3 7H1NG5!
1N 7H3 B3G1NN1NG
17 WA5 H4RD BU7
N0W, 0N 7H15 LIN3
Y0UR M1ND 1S
R34D1NG 17
4U70M471C4LLY
W17H 0U7 3V3N
7H1NK1NG 4B0U7 17,
B3 PROUD! 0NLY
C3R741N P30PL3 C4N
R3AD 7H15.
PL3453 F0RW4RD 1F
U C4N R34D 7H15.

To my 'selected' strange-minded friends:
This is weird, but interesting!

If you can raed this, you have a sgtrane mnid, too.

Can you raed this? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee
that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal
pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde
Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word
are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed
it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseaethe huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe.
Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

[Nerine]

Hehehe love it

I would have to do some research...but a clam is a good possibility or something clam like because I found a poem and it mentioned a perewig...SOOO it's possible they are the same thing

But again - it's so important that we have this great system in place for identification!!!! Loosing things in translation and no drawings as well, makes a big difference!!!

[Darth]

Hehehe love it

I would have to do some research...but a clam is a good possibility or something clam like because I found a poem and it mentioned a perewig...SOOO it's possible they are the same thing

But again - it's so important that we have this great system in place for identification!!!! Loosing things in translation and no drawings as well, makes a big difference!!!

yes I agree with that, and all too often things wind up getting a nickname ( I fear one day clownfish may be called nemos ...shudder) LOL

[Nerine]

Darth - that is so true!!!!