THE COMPLETE ANGLER. 139 



with his own eyes, and could not forbear to tell the reader. 

 Wiiich was : 



" As he and the bishop Thurzo were walking by a large 

 pond in Bohemia, they saw a frog, when the pike lay very sleepily 

 and quiet by the shore-side, leap upon his head ; and the frog 

 having expressed malice or anger by his swollen cheeks and 

 staring eyes, did stretch out and embrace the pike's head, and 

 presently reached them to his eyes, tearing with them and his 

 teeth those tender parts : the pike, moved with anguish, moves 

 up and down the water, and rubs himself against weeds, and 

 whatever he thought might quit him of his enemy ; but all in 

 vain, for the frog did continue to ride triumphantly, and to bite 

 and torment the pike, till his strength failed, and then the frog 

 sunk with the pike to the bottom of the water ; then presently 

 the frog appeared again at the top and croaked, and seemed to 

 rejoice like a conqueror, after which he presently retired to his 

 secret hole. The bishop, that had beheld the battle, called his 

 fisherman to fetch his nets, and by all means to get the pike, that 

 they might declare what had happened : and the pike was drawn 

 forth, and both his eyes eaten out ; at which when they began to 

 wonder, the fisherman wished them to forbear, and assured them 

 he was certain that pikes were often so served." 



I told this, which is to be read in the sixth chapter of the First 

 Book of Dubravius, unto a friend, who replied, "It was as im- 

 probable as to have the mouse scratch out the cat's eyes." But 

 he did not consider, that there be fishing frogs,* which the Dal- 

 matians call the water-devil, of which I might tell you as won- 

 derful a story ; but I shall tell you, that 'tis not to be doubted, 

 but that there be some frogs so fearful of the water-snake, that, 

 when they swim in a place in which they fear to meet with him, 

 they then get a reed across into their mouths, which, if they two 

 meet by accident, secures the frog from the strength and malice 



* The angler, Lophius piscatorius, is often called the fishing-frog {Rana 

 piscatrix), or, as by Willoughby, frog-fish. It is of this, probably, that 

 "^Valton had heard. It is hardly necessary to say that snakes generally will 

 prey upon frogs. The pretty garter-snake, and its habits, are familiar to 

 the American angler. — Am. Ed. 



