The Fourth Day 81 



too many to name, even as many sorts as some think 

 there be of several herbs or shrubs, or of several 

 kinds of birds in the air : of which I shall say no 

 more, but tell you, that what worms soever you fish 

 with, are the better for being well scoured, that is, 

 long kept before they be used : and in case you 

 have not been so provident, then the way to cleanse 

 and scour them quickly, is, to put them all night in 

 water, if they be lob-worms, and then put them into 

 your bag with fennel. But you must not put your 

 brandlings above an hour in water, and then put them 

 into fennel, for sudden use : but if you have time, 

 and purpose to keep them long, then they be best 

 preserved in an earthen pot, with good store of 

 moss, which is to be fresh every three or four days in 

 summer, and every week or eight days in winter ; 

 or, at least, the moss taken from them, and clean 

 washed, and wrung betwixt your hands till it be dry, 

 and then put it to them again. And when your 

 worms, especially the brandling, begins to be sick 

 and lose of his bigness, then you may recover him, I 

 by putting a little milk or cream, about a spoonful ' 

 in a day, into them, by drops on the moss ; and if 

 there be added to the cream an egg beaten and 

 boiled in it, then it will both fatten and preserve 

 them long. And note, that when the knot, which 

 is near to the middle of the brandling, begins to 

 swell, then he is sick ; and, if he be not well looked 

 to, is near dying. And for moss, you are to note, 

 that there be divers kinds of it, which I could name 

 to you, but I will only tell you that that which is 

 likest a buck's-horn is the best, except it be soft 

 white moss, which grows on some heaths, and is 

 hard to be found And note, that in a very dry- 

 time, when you are put to an extremity for worms, 

 walnut-tree leaves squeezed into water, or salt in 

 water, to make it bitter or salt, and then that water 

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