TURKEY 



43 1 



of water, in the neighbourhood of a sunken rock which has to 



be sedulously baited. His favourite food is a j)eculiar 



, . 1 r , - Sea Fishing. 



knid of crab from the Jewish \illage of Hasskeui 



which is prepared for him without the shell. He runs also \ery 



large, and fights as hard as the leverak. The lufer is a cajjri- 



cious feeder, and every trick has to be tried to take him, as he in 



turn tries every trick to break or bite through the line when once 



hooked. There is another sea monster resembling a huge 



merdjian, called the sinagridi, but he is usually angled for 



with trimmers buoyed up with large gourds. The sinagridi 



runs up to 60 lbs. or more. Besides these, there are the pala- 



niout, a large kind of mackerel, which come down the Bosphorus in 



myriads every autumn, making the water boil with their numbers. 



They are fished for with an endless line, i.e. a hook at both ends, 



one being paid out as the other is being drawn in. Xo bait 



is used, but merely hooks set in lead polished with (]uicksilver and 



adorned with a tuft of feathers. It is easy to catch a hundred of 



these, but somewhat fatiguing, as the motion is as endless as the 



line, and the palamout fight. The only other fish which may 



be mentioned is the scombri, a sort of miniature mackerel. They 



are cauoht with leoer-lines, heavily weiohted and furnished with 



from fifteen to thirty hooks, according to the skill of the fisherman. 



The hooks are bare except for a small heron's feather tied to 



the shank. Very fine gut is used, and every hook ought to take 



its fish. There is not very much art required to catch them, as 



they hook themselves more or less, but it is by no means easy to 



haul in a string of twentv or thirtv fish on such fine tackle. 



