INTRODUCTION. 51 



the Polynesian Isles deify the, large blue sharks 

 (aS'^'. glaiicus), and rather than attempt to destroy 

 them, endeavour to propitiate their favour by 

 prayers and offerings, in temples where their 

 priests officiate. 



Necessity, most probably, first induced man- 

 kind to employ fishes as an article of food, and 

 the same grand incentive to discovery, gradually 

 taught the most successful means and fittest 

 weapons for securing a supply. Among the 

 various contrivances which have been employed 

 for taking a prey of great strength and extraor- 

 dinary activity, perhaps some method of spear- 

 ing or darting a sharp instrument at the fish, 

 was the most early practised, and was exercised 

 previous to the invention of hooks or nets. 

 Among tribes in a state of nature, who have 

 only the resources of their own invention, and 

 materials of inferior quality, we still find, almost 

 invariably, this method practised, often with 

 very great dexterity, or with a bait sometimes 

 affixed to the point of the weapon, as a lure to 

 entice the fish within reach. The clear view 

 given in the water by fire or torch light, was 

 also early discovered, and formed a powerful and 

 destructive accessary. Hooks became a later 

 invention, naturally succeeding the gre'ater ex- 

 perience which an intercourse with the manners of 



