A HARD-WORKING DIET. 47 
population of Egypt, during the time of bondage 
had been fish eaters. There are many references in 
their history made to this, e.g. in the book of Numbers 
(xi. 5). ‘‘ We remember the fish which we did eat in 
Egypt freely.” They adopted a somewhat similar 
division between the clean and unclean to that in 
vogue in Egypt. The Mosaic distinction, which 
classed fish which had not fins and scales as unclean, 
was proved by experience to be ambiguous, and led 
to many ingenious comments and evasions by Talmudic 
writers. It was, however, similar to that of the Arabic 
lawgiver, El Hakim, who would allow none of the 
finless and scaleless fish to be sold in the markets of 
Egypt. 
Long prior to the conquest of Canaan that land 
had been one of the chief sources of the fish supply 
of Egypt, and the names Sidon (Saidu), “the fish 
town,” and the two villages of Bethsaida, (“house of 
fish”) on the Sea of Galilee, still remain to tell of the 
fisher life of the people. In the time of the historian - 
Nehemiah, Tyrian merchants traded in Jerusalem in 
sea fish, in the market near the fishgate. The Sea 
of Galilee furnished the markets of Jerusalem with 
fresh fish, and during Roman rule a high rent was 
paid for the right of fishery over the lake, a distinct 
body of tax collectors being appointed to gather the 
dues. 
In the richly watered valleys of the Tigris and Assyria. 
Euphrates fish was also largely adopted as an article 
of food, and the monuments of Nineveh furnish 
illustrations of the various modes of capture employed. 
As in Egypt, fishing both by net and by line was 
practised, while attached to the palaces of the kings 
