ASSYRIAN FISHING^ 

 CHAPTER XXX 



NO ROD, ALTHOUGH CLOSE INTERCOURSE WITH EGYPT 



There is no delineation or suggestion of the Rod, or of Angling 

 on any sculpture or any seal, Sumerian, Babylonian, or 

 Assyrian. 2 



The omission does not preclude the existence or use of the 

 Rod. If it did exist, and were used, we are surprised that 

 there should not survive amongst the thousands of things 

 mentioned and the many pursuits represented a single indica- 

 tion of it. Our wonder, indeed, grows stronger when we call 

 to mind that the Assyrians : 



(a) Were a people much given to sport of all kinds : 

 {b) Were keenly addicted to the eating of fish, which was 

 not, as in Israel or Egypt, half-banned by a prophet, or whole- 

 barred to a priesthood by custom, totemistic or other : 



(c) Did attach very real importance to the maintenance of 

 an ample supply of fish. Their dams and vivaria, the adjuncts 

 of every important temple or every self-respecting township, 

 and their enforcement of Fish Regulations, attest the economic 

 value : 



(d) Do mention and do represent other kinds of fishing, 

 e.g. with the hand-line and the net. The latter, for both fowling 



^ The term Assyrian in this chapter usually includes the Sumerians 

 and Babylonians. 



^ Lest Forlong's sentence {Rivers of Life (London, 1S83), II. 89), " A beauti- 

 ful Assyrian cyhnder exhibits the worship of the Fish God ; there we see the 

 mitred Man-God with Rod and basket," etc., be quoted in opposition, I would 

 point out that this so-caUed Rod is merely a cut sapling, like the one in the 

 hands of Heracles, but without a sign of any hne, which in the Greek vase 

 in the British Museum is obviously attached. Cf. Elite des monuments 

 Cc'ramographiques, vol. III., Plate I. 



349 2 A 2 



