352 THE PRACTICAL FISHERMAN. 



the myre. And within a whyle ther cam a fysher and smote throwe the 



dolphyn and sayde : 



He that hath affectyon with his enymye to goo 

 His hurte is to be doubtyd of his mortaff soo." 



Apropos of the sKpperiness of the eel, Dr. Badham says : " Everyone 

 knows, who may have tried the experiment, that to hold an eel with the 

 naked hand is as abortive an attempt as detaining a pig by the tail after 

 it has been well soaped ; or m morale to hold a knave to his word. Hence 

 the apothegm Anguilla est eldbitur, ' he's an eel, and he's off ' ; but both 

 eel and rogue may be held tight if we set about it in the right way, hence 

 the elliptic proverbial expression to ' hold an eel with a fig leaf ' which is 

 alluded to in Alciatus's emblem ' Indeprehensum,' where a policeman 

 thus addresses his captive: 



" Sir thief, you'r nobbed, and held quite fast, 



These bracelets are my seal; 

 Your nut's secured, I find at last 

 A. fig-leaf for my eel." 



We are not informed why a fig-leaf is selected for the purpose, but it is 

 presumably because of its comparatively rough structure and texture. 



The term "eel" is of Anglo-Saxon origin, the word " fansen" having been 

 anciently used for it. Junius in his " Dictionary Nomenclator Octolin- 

 guis," 1619, says " Fausten, praegrandis fansen, eels," which appears to 

 confine the word to larger examples. Hilpert, according to Notes cmd 

 Queries, says "Fansen der menaal" the sea eel, or conger. Both 

 Ely and Elsinore and Eelpie Island are amongst instances where places 

 have been so called by reason of the former plentifulness of these fish in 

 the respective neighbourhoods. 



As to the wholesomeness of the eel opinions have widely differed. 

 Mr. Buckland mentions a case where a large eel was cooked and made 

 all those who partook of it ill afterwards. I know of more than one case 

 also where gastro-intestinal irritation has resulted on their consumption 

 fresh from an unhealthy locality, such as a lake wherein sewage has been 

 suffered to enter. Eespectable members of the medical profession from 

 Galen to the" present day recommend it. The prescriptions of the earlier 

 members of this community did not, however, intend eels to be generally 

 used as an article of food ; that is, indiscriminately in disease and health. 

 Hippocrates expressly says, " This food must be forbidden in tabes and 

 diseased spleen" ; and Galen prescribes it as a medicine in nephritic 

 complaints, where the gluten might be thought to concrete gravel into 

 stone. 



The monks of Salermo, however, held them in abhorrence ; " Doctors of 

 every age have agreed to decry them as most pernicious to health in all 



