LEVIATHAN-FISHING 403 



words " cast in the Nile." But in a river, as every child 

 knows, fishing is pursued by more methods than that of the 

 Rod. Judging from the Hterature of our six Nations fishing 

 by hand-line was far and away more general than by Rod ; 

 the ratio between the two would indeed, I think, work out at 

 some 100 to I. 



If then the words, " cast in the Nile," do not furnish the 

 implication claimed, can we find any other words in the three 

 passages which do ? The one word common to them all is 

 hakkdh, hook : if this fail the claimants, how or whence can 

 they establish the impHcation ? 



Let us now see whither the implication from hakkdh leads 

 us. Obviously in Job, to angling with a Rod for " Leviathan " 

 or crocodile ! 1 The absurdity is already manifest. Let us, 

 however, in our hunt for the snark-Hke implication examine 

 the remaining tackle of this intrepid angler. Fortunately for 

 us, conjecture as to the hook or the bait is unnecessary. 



The Petrie collection at the University of London preserves 

 a hook, which in Ptolemaic times was employed in the Nile 

 for the capture — not of crocodiles — but merely of large fish, 

 such as Lates niloHcus. It measures over one foot in length, 

 with a shank over 2| inches in width. 



The account of crocodile fishing by the Egyptians left us 

 by Herodotus 2 prescribes the bait — no less an one than a 



1 At the beginning of the world (Buddha tells the Monk of Jetavana) all 

 the fishes chose Leviathan for their King. No hint as to what fish this 

 Leviathan represented is given us : but the Leviathan conceived by the 

 Talmudists seems to have been an indefinable sea-monster, of which the female 

 lay coiled round the earth till God, fearing that her progeny might destroy 

 the new globe, killed her and salted her flesh and put it away for the banquet 

 which at the end awaits the pious of the earth. On that day Gabriel will 

 kill the male also, and make a tent out of his skin for the Elect who are bidden 

 to the banquet (Robinson, op. cit., p. 8). As Robinson is somewhat misleading, 

 especially as regards the word Leviathan, I give the story as told by Buddha 

 with reference to Anqulimata from Jdtaka, nv. 537, vol. V. p. 462. A certain 

 king had been a Yakkha, and still wanted to eat human flesh. His commander- 

 in-chief tells him a tale to warn him. " Once upon a time there were 

 great fishes in the Ocean. One of them, Ananda, was made king of all the 

 fish, ate the other fish, and finally ate his own tail thinking it was a fish. 

 The remaining fish smelling blood, devoured Ananda's tail until they reached 

 his head, and all that was left of Ananda was a heap of bones." Leviathan is 

 a gloss of Robinson's, because the only word in the text which could in any 

 degree correspond to Leviathan is Mahd Maccho^^xezX fish. For the election 

 of a King of fish, see also the Nacca Jdtaka, and the Ubrida Jdtaka. 



2 Bk. IL 70. 



