THE FIFTH DAY continued 

 CHAPTER XXI 



PISCATOR AND VENATOR 



PlSCATOR. Well, Scholar, I have held you too long 

 about these cadis, and smaller fish, and rivers, and 

 fish-ponds ; and my spirits are almost spent, and so I 

 doubt is your patience ; but being we are now almost 

 at Tottenham where I first met you, and where we 

 are to part, I will lose no time, but give you a little 

 direction now to make and order your lines, and to 

 colour the hair of which you make your lines, for 

 that is very needful to be known of an angler; and 

 also how to paint your rod, especially your top ; 

 for a right-grown top is a choice commodity, and 

 should be preserved from the water soaking into it, 

 which makes it in wet weather to be heavy and fish 

 ill-favouredly, and not true ; and also it rots quickly 

 for want of painting: and I think a good top is 

 worth preserving, or I had not taken care to keep a 

 top above twenty years. 



But first for your Line. First note, that you are 

 to take care that your hair be round and clear, and 

 free from galls, or scabs, or frets : for a well-chosen, 

 even, clear, round hair, of a kind of glass-colour, will 

 prove as strong as three uneven scabby hairs that 

 are ill-chosen, and full of galls or unevenness. You 

 shall seldom find a black hair but it is round, but 

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