NATURAL HISTORY 29 



went for the murderer in a body. He fled from his 

 pursuers, invented salmon nets, and subsisted on the 

 proceeds of his fishing. Tracked at last to his place 

 of refuge, he burnt his nets to avoid the possibility ot 

 their being used against him, and, turning himself 

 into a salmon, plunged into the river. His pre- 

 cautions were of no avail ; for the fresh ashes of the 

 twine remained in the shape he had given them, and 

 the gods easily reconstructed the destroyed nets from 

 the pattern. The first time they dragged for him, 

 Loki, who had acquired the instincts with the form 

 of the fish, put his head under a stone, and the net 

 passed harmlessly over his back. Before making 

 their second venture, they added weight in the shape 

 of a lot of spare shields and bucklers * but this time 

 he escaped them by jumping over the middle of the 

 primaeval seine. But 'there is luck in odd numbers,' 

 and the third time, Thor wading behind the net, 

 probably even deeper than the point represented by 

 Scrope's limit of the fifth button of the waistcoat, an 

 adornment with which he dispensed, caught him by the 

 tail as he attempted to repeat his previous method of 

 escape, and put an end to his mischievous career. 1 

 Of course I do not seriously object to nets or net- 



1 See Forest Scenes in Norway and Sweden, Rev. Henry 

 Newland.— G. Routledge, 1855. 



