xxxviii The Complete Angler 



it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a 

 needle. As coarse fish are usually caught only with 

 bait, I shall not follow Izaak on to this unholy and 

 unfamiliar ground, wherein, none the less, grow 

 flowers of Walton's fancy, and the songs of the old 

 poets are heard. The Compleat Angler \ indeed, is a 

 book to be marked with flowers, marsh-marigolds 

 and fritillaries, and petals of the yellow iris, for the 

 whole provokes us to content, and whispers that 

 word of the apostle, " Study to be quiet ". 



FISHING THEN AND NOW 



Since Maui, the Maori hero, invented barbs for 

 hooks, angling has been essentially one and the 

 same thing. South Sea islanders spin for fish with 

 a mother-of-pearl lure which is also a hook, and 

 answers to our spoon. We have hooks of stone, 

 and hooks of bone ; and a bronze hook, found in 

 Ireland, has the familiar Limerick bend. What 

 Homer meant by making anglers throw " the horn 

 of an ox of the stall" into the sea, we can only 

 guess ; perhaps a horn minnow is meant, or a little 

 sheath of horn to protect the line. Dead bait, live 

 bait, and imitations of bait have all been employed, 

 and jElian mentions artificial Mayflies used, with a 

 very short line, by the Illyrians. 



But, while the same in essence, angling has been 

 improved by human ingenuity. The Waltonian 

 angler, and still more his English predecessors, 

 dealt much in the home-made. The Treatise of 

 the fifteenth century bids you make your " Rodde " 

 of a fair staff even of a six foot long or more, as ye 

 list, of hazel, willow, or " aspe " (ash ?), and u beke 

 hym in an ovyn when ye bake, and let him cool 

 and dry a four weeks or more ". The pith is taken 

 out of him with a hot iron, and a yard of white 



