and by the sound of crotala (clappers) made of shells;" and so musically inclined was this species, and so sharp in hearing sounds even out of its own element, that "dancing up, it leapt into the nets spread for the purpose, giving great and abundant sport." Indeed, if Plato and others are to be trusted, the Egyptians not only caught, but tamed fish, with the same facility as land animals.

Fishermen mostly used the net. It was of a long form, like the common drag net, with wooden floats on the upper, and leads on the lower side; * but though it was sometimes let down from a boat, those who pulled it generally stood on the shore, and landed the fish on a shelving bank. The leads were occasionally of an elongated shape, hanging from the outer cord or border of the net; but they were most usually flat, and, being folded round the cord, the opposite sides were beaten together; a satisfactory instance of which is seen in the ancient net preserved in the Berlin Museum; and this method continues to be adopted by the modern Egyptians.

426.

Leads, with part of a net.

Berlin Museum.

Besides the ordinary Egyptian net, they sometimes used a smaller kind, for catching fish in shallow water, furnished with a pole on either side, to which it was attached, exactly similar to one now used in India; and the fisherman holding one of the poles in either hand, thrust it below the surface of the water, and

*See woodcut 425.

awaited the moment when a shoal of small fry passed over it. And this, or a smaller landing-net, secured the large fish, which had been wounded with the spear, or entangled with the hook.

427.

A sort of landing-net.

Thebes.

When they employed the drag-net, and even when they pulled it to the shore, a boat sometimes attended, in which the fish were deposited as soon as caught; those intended for immediate use, to be eaten fresh, being sent off to market when the day's sport was finished; and the others being opened, salted, and hung up to dry in the sun.*

Some were cut in half, and suspended on ropes were left to dry in the sun and the open air; sometimes the body was simply laid open with a knife from the head to the tail, the two sides being divided as far as the back bone; and many were contented with taking out the intestines, and removing the head and tip of the tail, and exposing them, when salted, to the sun.

When caught, the small fish were generally put into baskets, but those of a larger kind were suspended to a pole, borne by two or more men over their shoulders, or were carried singly in the hand, slung at their back, or under the arm; all which methods are adopted by the modern fishermen at the Cataracts of A'Souán, and in other parts of the country.

Great was the consumption of fish in Egypt, as we know from

* Woodcuts 420, 428.

428.

α

2

3

Bringing in fish and opening them, preparatory to their being salted.

the sculptures and other good authority; the "fishers" of the Nile, and "they that cast angle into the brooks," "they that spread nets," and they "that make sluices and ponds for fish,"

are mentioned in the Bible; and the Israelites remembered with regret "the fish which (they) did eat in Egypt freely."† They were eaten either fresh or salted; and at a particular month of the year, on the 9th day of the first month (Thoth), every person was obliged, by a religious ordinance, to eat a fried fish before the door of his house, with the exception of the priests, who were contented to burn it on that occasion.‡

Some fish were particularly prized for the table, and preferred as being more wholesome, as well as superior in flavour to others; among which we may mention the búlti§, the kishr,|| the benni,¶ the shall,** the shilbeh,†† and arábrab, the byad,‡‡ the harmoot,§§ and a few others; but it was unlawful to touch those which were sacred, as the oxyrhinchus, the phagrus, and the lepidotus: and the inhabitants of the city of Oxyrhinchus objected even to eat any fish caught by a hook, lest it should have been defiled by the blood of one they held so sacred.

The oxyrhinchus was probably the mizdeh, a mormyrus remarkable among the fish of the Nile for its pointed nose, as the word oxyrhinchus implies; and a prejudice is still felt

or

430.

1

The Oxyrhinchus fish, in bronze.

against it in some parts of Upper Egypt. Indeed, mizdeh is not very unlike the Coptic name of the city of (Oxyrhinchus) Mge. It is often represented in the sculptures, and in bronze; and in the temple of the Great Oasis this fish is accompanied by the name of Athor, or Venus, showing it to have been one of her emblems.

*Isaiah xix. 8, 10. Plut. de Is. s. 7. Perca Nilotica.

** Silurus Shall.

Silurus Bajad.

+ Numb. xi. 5.

431. At the Oasis.

§ Or booltee, Labrus Niloticus. Cyprinus Benni, or C. Lepidotus. The Silurus Schilbe Niloticus.

§§ Silurus Carmuth.