CHAP. VIII. THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 217 



of his own kind, that shall be bigger than his belly 

 or throat will receive, and swallow a part of him, 

 and let the other part remain in his mouth till the 

 swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that 

 other part that was in his mouth, and so put it 

 over by degrees ; which is not unlike the Ox', and 

 some other beasts' taking their meat not, out of their 

 mouth, immediately into their belly, but first into 

 some place betwixt ; and then chew it, or digest it 

 by degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. 

 And, doubtless, Pikes will bite when they are not 

 hungry ; but as some think, even for very anger ; 

 when a tempting bait comes near to them. 



And it is observed, That the Pike will cat ve- 

 nomous things, as some kind of frogs are ; and yet live 

 without being harmed by them ; for, as some say, he 

 has in him a natural balsam, or antidote against all 

 poison. And he has a strange heat, that though it ap- 

 pears to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over, any 

 fish-flesh, by degrees, without being sick. And others 

 observe, that he never eats the venomous frog till he 

 have, first, killed her, and, then as ducks are observed 

 to do to frogs in spawning time, at which time some 

 frogs are observed to be venomous so thoroughly 



" A cub Fox, drinking out of the river Arnus in Italy, had his 

 " head seized on by a mighty Pike, so that neither could free themselves, 

 * but were ingrappled together. In this contest, a young man runs 

 " into the water, takes them out both alive ; and carrieth them to 

 " the Duke of Florence, whose pahce was hard by. The porter would 

 w not admit him, without promising of sharing his full half in what the 

 41 duke should give him ; to which he (hopeless, otherwise, of entrance) 

 " condescended. The duke highly affected with the rarity, was about 

 " giving him a good reward ; which the other refused, desiring his 

 " highness would appoint one of his guard to give him an hundred 

 " lashes, that so his porter might have fifty, according to his composition. 

 " And here my intelligence leaveth me, how much farther the jest was 

 * followed." 



The same Author relates from a book entitled Vox Piscis, printed in 

 1626 that one Mr. Anderson, a townsman and merchant of Newcastle, 

 talking with a friend on Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, let it fall 

 into the river : but it having been swallowed by a fish, and the fish, 

 afterwards taken, the ring was found and restored to him. Worthies, 

 Northumberland) 310. A like story is, by Herodotus, related of Polycrates 

 king of Sames. 



