314 TACKLE 



Roman times, are well designed, but their barbs are less 

 intelligently placed than are those of the Middle Kingdom. ^ 



But even in Roman times several types of hook, fairly 

 well distributed in the Northern Mediterranean, seem un- 

 known in Egypt ; for instance, double hooks, barbed or barbless, 

 of the Bronze Age in Switzerland, hooks with a spUt eye or 

 an eye made by twisting the end of the shank round itself (as 

 found in Crete) and many others are yet to seek. 2 



The cluster or gang hook early confronts us in the tomb of 

 Gem-Ni-Kai.3 The fisherman here extends his index finger 

 to feel the faintest bite : below the water the Une ends in a 

 cluster of five hooks, one of which holds a large fish. 



The ancient monuments sometimes portray fishing from a 

 boat with hand-lines. Those of the Old Kingdom as often as 

 not depict the fisher as an elderly peasant, presumably no 

 longer equal to the brisker business of hauling a heavy seine. 



Occasionally two lines are employed, as in the scene which 

 Blackman 4 describes: "A small reed skiff, containing two 

 men, one of whom, loUing at ease in the stern, has just secured 

 a catch upon one of his lines, while his companion, standing 

 upright in the bow, is pulhng his loaded net out of the 

 watef." 



Another instance of hand-lining comes from Beni Hasan. ^ 

 The same register contains a representation which is not only 

 the earliest (c. 2000 B.C.) of fishing with a Rod known in the 

 whole world, but is also (with the exception of that from the 

 tomb of Kenamun at Thebes 6) the only depictment, I believe, 

 of the Rod till we reach Greece about the sixth century B.C. 



Unless the passion for sport pure and simple dominated 

 rich and poor alike, we can fairly surmise that Angling yielded 

 good results. The man in the Beni Hasan illustration, whether 

 a fishing ghillie, or a professional fisherman belonging to the 



^ Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, p. 34. 



* Bates, p. 249. ^ 

 3 F. von Bissing, Die Mastaha des Gem-Ni-Kai (Berlin, 1905), vol. I., m 



PI. IV. fig. 2. ^ 



* Op. cit.. vol. III., PI. VI 



* P. E.Newberry, Beni Hasan (London, 1893), Part i, PI. 29. Cf. Wilkin- 

 son, op cit., vol. I., PI. 371. 



* Ibid., PI. 370. This faces my introduction. 



