3i8 TACKLE 



a hand-net, and gripping the end with his toes, while a lad, 

 preparing twine, rubs his spindle on his thigh, i 



Actual specimens of Net twine prepared from flaxen and 

 other vegetable fibres were discovered at Kahun in balls of 

 two-strand and of three-strand string of the Xllth Dynasty. 

 Fragments of Nets " having | to f inch (i-2 to i-g cm.) mesh, 

 the smallest being ^ inch (say 0*3 cm.) square," came to hand 

 at the same locality. 2 



Kahun 5delded also some fragments of later, probably 

 XVIIIth Dynasty, Nets, with meshes from 0-5 to 1-5 cm. and 

 made of coarser twine than the earlier examples, ^ whose 

 fineness of mesh talhes with the small size of some of the 

 ancient needles. 



Weels or wicker fisher traps (especially in the Old Kingdom) 

 come down to us either small (about i m. 50 long), simply 

 constructed, and capable of manipulation by two men, or very 

 large, of more complex fashioning internally, and requiring 

 several men to handle. * 



Whether the Egyptians employed poisons, like most of the 

 Mediterranean nations, I have not discovered. As examples, 

 they are impossible of survival ; for depictment of their actual 

 use not even the boldest Nilotic Cubist would have been 

 adequate, unless he imitated the Athenian artist by hiero- 

 glyphing " These be poisons " ! 



1 J. J. Tylor, The Tomb of Paheri (London, 1895), PI- VI., probably XVIIIth 

 Dyn. 



2 Petrie, Kahun, p. 28. 

 ^ Ibid., p. 34. 



* Illustrations of both kinds can be found in Steindorf's Das Grab des Ti, 

 Pis. ex. and CXI. 



