86 best's art of angling, 



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THE ART OF ANGLING. 



TO CATCH FISHES. 



TAKE Coculus Indicus, which is a poisonous 

 narcotic, called also haccce piscatorice fisher's 

 berries and pound them in a mortar, then make 

 balls of the paste which will be produced (by 

 adding a sufficient quantity of water) about the 

 size of a pea, and throw them into a standing- 

 water ; the fish that taste of it will be very soon 

 intoxicated, and will rise and lie on the sur- 

 face of the water ; put your lauding-net under 

 them, and take them out. 



Coculus Indicus is a little berry, about as big 

 as a bay-berry, but more of a kidney-shape, hav- 

 ing a wrinkled outside, with a seam running 

 lentghways from the back to the navel : it is of 

 a bitterish taste, being the fruit of a tree describ- 

 ed in the seventh volume of the Hortus Mala- 

 baricus, under the name of NasJatuniy bearing 

 leaves in the shape of a heart, and bunches of 

 five-leaved white flowers, which are succeeded 

 by their berries. They grow in Malabar in the 

 East Indies. They are seldom used in physic, 

 being accounted to be of a hurtful and pernici- 

 ous nature, but their principal use is for catching 

 fishes : the famous Cardan's celebrated receipt 



