358 FISHING METHODS 



WTiile there may be doubt whether we possess any Assyrian 

 word signifying hooks, there can be none as to their existence 

 and their employment. 



From the absence of any, even conjectural, word for or 

 representation of a float, we can only infer that ground bait 

 fishing was the chief, perhaps the sole, line method in vogue. 



I can find no evidence that the Assyrians availed themselves 

 of the spear, the trident, drugs or poison, but as the first two 

 figure in Egj^ptian, Jewish, and Roman records, and appear 

 to be the common property of all early peoples, the probability 

 is that they were known and used in the Two Rivers. 



The fish of these resembled the fish of the Nile in their 

 alleged refusal to rise to a fly, but our soldiers have caught on 

 the fly hundreds of " salmon " of good weight up to 112 lbs. 

 One (hand-Hned) scaled 170 lbs., and one (speared) ran up to 

 215 lbs. This " salmon " is a kind of mahseer, the noblest of 

 the carp family, ^ or, according to Mr. Tate Regan, a barbel, 

 probably the species Barbus esocinus described by Heckel as 

 coming from the Tigris. 2 



The second method was by Netting, which to judge from 

 its repeated occurrence either as a pursuit or in metaphor 

 was universal, and prevailed far more extensively than line 

 fishing, especially in Sumeria. The only Sumerian word, 

 according to Dr. Langdon, for fishing, ha-dib (one of the oldest 

 words in the world for the act or occupation), signifies or is 

 akin to a word signifying " to surround," i.e. with a net, as 

 does the Babylonian term bdru. If this be the case, Netting 

 probably constituted their universal, possibly their only fishing. 

 In the eastern division of Assyria proper lie the main 

 tributaries of the Tigris, such as the Zab and the Diyala, 

 rising among the Kurdish mountains. As Netting was naturally 

 more restricted in this area than in the Persian Gulf, line 

 fishing possibly obtained more widely here than in the South. 



At any rate it is from the Sumerian excavations that we 

 derive a well-known example of metaphorical Net fishing. 



^ See The Fishing Gazette, January 6, 191 7. 



"^ See The Field, March 15, 1919. The fish is said to attain a weight of 

 over 300 lbs. 



