4o6 ROD NOT EMPLOYED— REASONS 



of, or the " cultural associations " in, a German work often defy 

 prediction from its mere headings. Mainzer, in his Fischfang, 

 serves to recall Person's lines, which are themselves but an 

 adaptation of a Greek epigram, i 



" The Germans in Greek 

 Are sadly to seek. 

 Not five in five score 

 But ninety-five more. 

 All save only Hermann, 

 And Hermann's a German ! " 



Lest my own conclusion — that neither in the Old or New 

 Testament is the imphed use of the Rod estabUshed — carry 

 little weight, I subjoin the conclusions (stated in letters to me) 

 arrived at by two well-known Hebrew scholars. 



The first comes from Professor A. R. S. Kennedy (the 

 writer of the article on Fishing in the EncyclopcBdia Bihlica) : 

 " In short you are entirely justified, so far as evidence goes, 

 in saying that the Jews did not use the Rod." 



The second comes from Dr. St. Clair Tisdall : " We find in 

 the Bible no proof of fishing with Rod and Une : on the contrary 

 the fact that no mention whatever, direct or indirect, of the 

 fishing Rod occurs either in the Bible or (as far as my reading 

 goes) in the Talmud, makes it almost certain that the Rod 

 was not used by the Jews, At any rate the use of any such 

 instrument is not implied in either Book." 



A second reason for the absence of the Rod may be that 

 of dates. The Jews, it might be urged, were not and could 

 not be aware of Egyptian Angling, because it sprang up 

 subsequent to their Exodus from the country. The reply I 

 offer involves, it is true, that bewildering factor, Egyptian 

 chronology. But even if a thousand years are as nothing in 

 the sight of Manetho and many others, surely one epoch 

 correlates with another, and the shifting of one date auto- 

 matically involves the shifting of others. 



1 In a letter to A. Dalziel, Sept. 3, 1803, Person states that these lines 

 were an effort made to English an epigram by an Etonian friend, in imitation 

 of Phocylides's saw (Strabo, X. p. 487) : 



Kal rSSi <f>co/ci/A.i5oi/. Aepioi kukol, oux S /xiv, hs 5' ov, 

 iravres, ir\r]v VlpoKKfuvs' Kal TlpoKKfr]? Aepios. 



