238 THE PIKE. 



But a most unexpected assailant is mentioned by Dubravius 

 Bishop of Olmutz in Moravia, who relates what he saw with his 

 own eyes of the antipathy of the frog to the pike, as well the 

 courage of the former, in venturing to attack an enemy of such 

 superior force : " As he and Bishop Thurzo were walking by the 

 side of a large pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog when the pike 

 lay very sleepily and quiet by the shore side, leap upon his head, 

 and the frog, having express malice or anger by his swoln cheeks 

 and staring eyes, did stretch out his legs and embrace the pike's 

 head, and presently reached his (the pike's) eyes tearing with his 

 teeth those tender parts : the pike moved with anguish up and 

 down the water, and rubs himself against weeds, and whatever 

 else he thought might quit him of his enemy, but all in vain for 

 the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite and tor- 

 ment the pike, till his strength failed, and then the frog sunk with 

 the pike to the bottom of the water ; then presently the frog ap- 

 peared at the top and croaked and seemed to rejoice like a con- 

 queror, after which he presently retired to his secret hole. The 

 Bishop that had beheld the battle, called his fishermen to fetch his 

 nets, and by that means to get the pike that they might declare 

 what had happened ; and the pike was drawn out with both his 

 eyes eaten out, at which they began to wonder ; the fishermen 

 wished them to forbear, and assured them that pikes were often 

 so served." 



Walton also informs us that he was told by a gentleman of tried 

 honesty, " that happening one day in a hot summer to see a large 

 carp swim near the top of the water with a frog upon his head, he 

 caused the pond to be let dry, when, out of seventy or eighty carps 

 that had been placed there a short time previously, he found but 

 five or six, and those very sick and lean, and with every one a frog 

 sticking so fast on the head of the said carps, th at the frog would 

 not be got off without extreme force or killing. 1 ' He also states 

 that a person of honour then living in Worcestershire, assured 

 him that he had seen a necklace or collar of tadpoles hang like a 

 chain or necklace of beads about a pike's neck, and to kill him : 

 but whether for meat or malice was to him a question. 



But supposing a very moderate portion of the spawn of the 

 pike were to come to maturity, they would not only speedily pro- 

 duce a famine in the waters, but the latter element would in a 

 very short time, assuming they could find sufficient food to main- 



