174 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 



into that pond by Frederick the Second, more 

 than two hundred years before he was last taken, 

 as by the inscription in that ring, being Greek, 

 was interpreted by the then Bishop of Worms. 

 But of this no more, but that it was 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 ob- 

 served 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, devour- 

 ing disposition, which is so keen that, 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 bite 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 ob- 

 serves that a maid in Poland had a pike bite 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. Seagrave, of whom I 

 spake to you formerly, that keeps tame otters, that 

 he hath known a pike, in extreme hunger, fight 



