The " Proching Hooked 37 



chez Jacques Du-Poys, 1570.' This is 

 inferred from the headings of the chapters 

 not continued in later editions which 

 Mascall has preserved, and one of which 

 has been curiously mistranslated. This 

 is chapter sixty-six, p. 36, headed, ' To 

 make it drie.' The words in Estienne's 

 are ' Pour les seiches ' to take ' cray- 

 fish.' " 



Not the least interesting of the hints 

 given by Mascall is that for taking eels 

 with "a proching hooke" a method in 

 use to this day, and one with which as a 

 school-boy I have taken many a fine eel 

 in the daytime and in clear water. 



Here is Mascall's description : 



" There is another kind of hooke, calde 

 a proching hooke, which is made without 

 a barke [barbe] ; this kind or manner of 

 hookes are to put in a hole in the banke, 

 or betwixt two bordes at a bridge or water, 

 or betwixt two stones where they lie 

 open, for there commonly lieth the great 

 Yeles, and if there be any ye'eles, they 

 will take it anon : which proch, is wier 

 whipt on a pack thre'edes end, and covered 

 with a great worme, and therewith prochin 

 to the saide holes. . . . 



"As soon as ye f^ele she hath the 

 baite, plucke away your rodde, for it doth 

 nothing but guide your proch into y e 



