14 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



of a long pole, among the rocks, when, if any fish are within smell, 

 the crew are sure of a good haul. It was found, they said, particularly 

 successful in the capture of cephali, and generally of low swimming 

 fish, whose nostrils come in more immediate contact with the 

 ground." The botanical correctness of this passage has been proved. 



But if the so-called ancients were fastidious and curious in the 

 manufacture of their baits, what will be said of the early fathers of 

 English angling in this respect? "I make," says one who fished in 

 the 15th century, "but little boast of my unguents ; for there are those 

 about who would steal of my secrets and lie in wait, abounding 

 like a robber for that which I use, that they the whereof could take 

 to the man of cunning and set aside each of its components, and 

 thus become master of that which is none of theirs ; but this I 

 will venture, for none such purloiners of man's goods is there even the 

 most simple of pastes left for that being made of white bread and milk 

 needeth clean hands." Is not this a "palpable hit," good reader ? 



Clearly, from the passage the old fisherman was cunning in the 

 preparation of his fantastic lures. Perhaps the following mixture, 

 given by another writer, was one of the stolen secrets : ' ' Assaf oetida, 

 oil of polypody of the oak, oil of ivy, oil of peter, and gum ivy mixed 

 as a paste." By the way, of all horrid foetid stinks, I think 

 aasafoetida is the most sickly, and how it ever could be imagined 

 that fish would take kindly to it, when some will reject with scorn 

 the reeking brandling or stale lobworm, is beyond my comprehension. 

 Polypody of the oak is scarcely less nasty. The oil of ivy is not 

 so offensive, and is the sap or exudation of the ivy stem. What 

 oil of peter is, unless it is oil of St. Peter's wort, I am not chemist 

 enough to determine. For curiosity's sake I once made up the 

 mess, minus "oil of peter" and found it not only unspeakably 

 offensive but unsuccessful to boot. But to proceed. Even still 

 more wonderful and mystical ingredients are recorded as efficacious 

 in the capture of fish. Thus Mons. Charras, Apothecary Royal to 

 Louis XIV., left behind this recondite prescription : "Take of man's 

 fat and cat's fat of each |oz. ; mummy, finely powdered, 3 drachms ; 

 cummin seed, finely powdered, 1 drachm ; distilled oil of aniseed and 

 spike, of each 6 drops ; civet, 2 grains ; and camphire, 4 grains. 

 Make an ointment according to art. When you angle with this, 

 anoint Sin. of line next the hook." We are informed that the 

 " man's " fat can be got at any surgeon's, but where the 3 drachms 

 of "mummy" can be procured I do not know. There must have 

 been some imagined or real virtue in the corporeal body of man or 

 its remains, else why these directions ? " Take the bones or skull 



