192 ^LIAN— FIRST ARTIFICIAL FLY 



were used, and are specially stated to have been used for 

 tying only the Macedonian fly, and that this special statement 

 of such uses is meant expressly to differentiate the Macedonian 

 from all other ways of fishing, and thus constitutes the first 

 mention of an Artificial Fly, I counter by a couple of queries. 



Why in XII. 43, and XV. 10, are these self-same wools and 

 feathers set out among the necessary ordinary requisite tackle 

 of a fisherman, if they were not used for dressing a fly, perhaps 

 more primitive but still Artificial ? And, if they were not so 

 used, to what other fishing purpose can they be fairly applied ? 



Again, let us for a moment grant that the Macedonian 

 device was the absolutely new invention or the striking de- 

 parture from all preceding angling methods, which, had 

 artificial flies not previously been well known, it most certainly 

 would have been. In this case, surely vElian, meticulous in 

 his examination and classification of the tackle, etc., needed 

 for each of the four stated kinds of fishing, would have employed, 

 when about to tell of this invention, words calling more instant 

 attention to and far worthier of this great revolution than the 

 simple, " I have heard of the Macedonian way of fishing, and 

 it is this " ! 



As supporting my contention, a further point must be 

 noted. In the list of tackle in XII. 43, wools and feathers are 

 mentioned in a general manner, but in XV. i, their use is 

 particularised and elaborated. Similarly in the first passage 

 the making and material of Rods are given, but in the second 

 (and here only) the particular length of rod is stated. 



It is on these passages (XII. 43, and XV. 10) and on their 

 natural implication, that I chiefly found my conclusion that 

 (A) the practice of making up and fishing with some kind of 

 artificial fly had been in more or less general use for a long time 

 previous to the Macedonian device, and (B) that the device 

 is quoted merely as an instance of a special, local, and improved 

 adaptation of such usage — in a word as le dernier cri in flies ! ^ 



If in Martial {Ep., V. 18. 8) musco, not musca, should be 



^ If Sandys {antea, 185, note 4) be right about ^Elian's work being 

 "mainly borrowed from Alexander of Myndos," first century a.d., the 

 artificial fly was probably well known in Martial's time. 



