VI BIJBLlOGRAPiiR AL PREFACE. 



to Manetho (Syjicclli Oironicon, 40), by Mercurius Tris- 

 megistus.* 



LeaviniT these aniusin*^ fables, we find the earhest authen- 

 tic mention of anirhni^ in the book of Job (accordinc: to 

 the probable chronology of Usher, B.C. 15*20), where the 

 Lord asks him (xli., 1, ii) : " Canst thou draw out leviathan 

 with a hook ? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest 

 down? Canst thou put a hook in his nose ? or bore his jaw 

 through with a thorn ?" The first verse clearly shows that 

 angling, fishing with hook and line, was practised at that 

 early day. The second verse has been a fruitful source 

 of critical conjectures to both Jewish and Christian com- 

 mentators, for the word translated hook signifies properly 

 a reed^ meaning, according to the Rabbi Salomon, an iron 

 hook bent like a reed ; Mercator calls it a hook made of a 

 reed ; the learned Bochart, in his Hierozoicon (treatise on 

 the animals of Scripture), supposes that it is "a noose {ca- 

 pistrum) made of a pliant reed," as fish are sometimes 

 snared among us ; and that the \vord, rendered " thorn " in 

 the second clause of the verse, means " a hook sharp as a 



* Janus had the credit of having taught the Italians among other useful 

 arts that nf fisliing, vcnari pisces (Alexander Sardus, De Rermn inventori- 

 hiis, ii., K'l) ; hut Janus was tlic Osiris of tlie Etrurians, who followed 

 closely the eastern mythology, and the legend only throws back the inven- 

 tion to the primitive ages. The reader will find similar traditions among 

 the Phoenicians by consulting Eusebius (^Prcep. Evan., 1), w'ho had in his 

 eye this passage of Sanchoniatho's Cosmogony : " In times long subsequent 

 to these (those of the fourth in descent from .^i^on), were born of the race 

 of Hypsuranius, Agreus and Halieus, the inventors of tlie arts of hunting 

 and fisliing, from whom liuntsmen and fishermen derive tlieir names. 

 A son {of Haliexis) called Chryson, who is the same with Heplicestus, exer- 

 cised himself in words, charms and divinations ; and he invented the hook, 

 the bait and the fishing line, and boats of a light construction ; and he 

 was the first that ever sailed." 



" Quels souvenirs touchans cette lignc peut rajjpeler I Kile retrace a 

 Tcnfance, ses jeux ; a Tagc mur, ses loisirs ; a la vieillesse, ses distractions ; 

 au cceur sensible, le ruisseau voisin du toit paternel ; au voyageur,le repos 

 occupe des peuplades, dont il enleve la douce quietude; au philosophe 

 Fcrigine de Varty — Lactplde, Histoirc des Poissons. 



