two hundr 



The Fourth Day 121 



vo hundred years before he was last taken, as by 

 the inscription in that ring, being Greek, was inter- 

 preted by the then Bishop of Worms. But of this 

 no more; but that it is observed, that the old or 

 very great Pikes have in them more of state than 

 goodness ; the smaller or middle-sized Pikes being, 

 by the most and choicest palates, observed to be the 

 best meat : and, contrary, the Eel is observed to be 

 the better for age and bigness. 



All Pikes that live long prove chargeable to 

 their keepers, because their life is maintained by 

 the death of so many other fish, even those of their 

 own kind ; which has made him by some writers to 

 be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh-water 

 wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring, dis- 

 position ; which is so keen, as Gesner relates, A 

 man going to a pond, where it seems a Pike had 

 devoured all the fish, to water his mule, had a Pike 

 bit his mule by the lips ; to which the Pike hung so 

 fast, that the mule drew him out of the water ; and 

 by that accident, the owner of the mule angled out 

 the- Pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a 

 maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as 

 she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have 

 heard the like of a woman in Killingworth pond, 

 not far from Coventry. But I have been assured 

 by my friend Mr. Segrave, of whom I spake to 

 you formerly, that keeps tame Otters, that he hath 

 known a Pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of 

 his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had caught, 

 and was then bringing out of the water. I have 

 told you who relate these things ; and tell you they 

 are persons of credit; and shall conclude this ob- 

 servation, by telling you, what a wise man has ob- 

 served, " It is a hard thing to persuade the belly, 

 because it has no ears ". 



But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too 



