154 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. [PARTI. 



it were casually, without the least communicating them to any 

 other nation or tribe ; for to do that they account a profanation. 

 And, yet, it is thought that they, or some spirit worse than they, 

 first told us, that lice, swallowed alive, were a certain cure for the 

 yellow jaundice. This, and many other medicines, were discovered 

 by them, or by revelation ; for, doubtless, we attained them not 

 by study. 5 



Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful, both dead and 

 alive, for the good of mankind. But I will meddle no more with 

 that, my honest, humble art teaches no such boldness : there are 

 too many foolish meddlers in physic and divinity that think 

 themselves fit to meddle with hidden secrets, and so bring de- 

 struction to their followers. But I'll not meddle with them, any 

 farther than to wish them wiser ; and shall tell you next, for I 

 hope I may be so bold, that the Tench is the physician of fishes, 

 for the Pike especially, and that the Pike, being either sick or 

 hurt, is cured by the touch of the Tench. And it is observed 

 that the tyrant Pike will not be a wolf to his physician, but for- 

 bears to devour him though he be never so hungry.* 



This fish, that carries a natural balsam in him to cure both 

 himself and others, loves yet to feed in very foul water, and 



VARIATION. 



5 The observations on the Tench originally appeared in very different form, but with 

 the exception of the passage beginning "and yet it is thought," and ending "not by 

 study," were altered as in the text in the second edition. The passage alluded to was 

 inserted in the third and subsequent editions. Thejfirst edition ran thus : " The Tench 

 is observed to love to live in ponds : but if he be in a river, then in the still places of the 

 river ; he is observed to be a physician to other fishes, and is so called by many that hav^ 

 been searchers into the nature of fish : and it is said that a pike will neither devour nor 

 hurt him, because the pike being sick or hurt by any accident, is cured by touching the 

 Tench, and the Tench does the like to other fishes, either by touching them or by being 

 in their company. 



" Rondeletius says in his discourse of fishes, quoted by Gesner, that at his being at 

 Rome, he saw certain Jews apply Tenches to the feet of a sick man for a cure : and it is 

 observed, that many of those people have many secrets unknown to Christians, secrets 

 which have never been written, but have been successively, since the days of Solomon, 

 who knew the nature of all things from the shrub to the cedar, delivered by tradition 

 from the father to the son, and so from generation to generation without writing, or 

 unless it were casually, without the least communicating them to any other nation or 

 tribe, for to do so, they account a prophanation : yet this fish that does by a natural 

 inbred balsam, not only cure himself if he be wounded, but others also, loves not to live 

 in clear streams paved with gravel, but in standing waters where mud and the worst of 

 weeds abound, and therefore it is I think, that this Tench is by so many accounted better 

 for medicines than for meat : but for the first I am able to say little, and for the latter, 

 can say positively, that he eats pleasantly, and will therefore give you a few and but a 

 lew directions how to catch him. 



"He will bite at a paste," &c., as in the text. 



* That this idea prevailed nearly a century before the time when Walton wrote, 

 appears by the following extract from Lord Burleigh's Papers: "The perche and the 

 pike will agree best together, and the pike will not hurt the tenche, as being the 

 physician of all freshe-water fishe." Burleigh Papers, Lansd. MS. 101, art. 9. 



