20 FISHERIES AND FISHERMEN 



to the best authorities, by Cassianus Bassus at the com- 

 mand of the Emperor Constantine I'orphyrogenitus. This 

 curious treatise forms an admirable illustration of classic 

 science, containing excerpts from Aratus, Hippocrates, 

 Zoroaster, and numerous other writers on rural matters ; 

 and together with information of all kinds, botanical, 

 agricultural, and piscatorial, it furnishes such items as 

 receipts for universal bait, and charms for driving away 

 mice from any particular field.* It is, in fact, an encyclo- 

 paedia of ancient rural lore. 



Hook, rod, line, and net, every weapon in fact now used 

 by man in his finny warfare — except that potent instru- 

 ment the trawl — was apparently common to classic times. 

 When the enemy is so easily caught, there is little induce- 

 ment to waste ingenuity in devising new means of offence. 

 Still, the variety of methods, especially in relation to nets, 

 was considerable ; and fishermen, to follow Julius Pollux 

 (or rather Polydeikes), might be divided into three classes 

 — the anglers, the employers of nets and torches for night 

 use with the spear, and the divers for sponges, or for the 

 purple-fish. The ordinary implements were as follows : the 

 nassa, or net, said to be made of twigs ; baskets of various 

 kinds ; the casting-net ; the drag-net ; the <yd<y<yaixov, or 

 sagena, the time-honoured seine ; corks ; bamboo fishing- 

 rods ; poles or stakes to fix into the ground ; fishing-lines ; 

 flax and sewing-thread ; hooks ; leads and fishing-spears. 

 To this list the'author adds the boat utensils ; and observes 



* I am indebted for a knowledge of the existence of this curious 

 treatise, as v/ell as for many other courtesies, to Mr. Garnet, the well- 

 known superintendent of the reading-room at the British Museum ; and 

 I am glad to avail myself of this opportunity for expressing my thanks 

 to the numerous officials in that department who have aided me in 

 my researches. 



