ANCIENT ANGLING AUTHORS 5 



order that they may be able to identify it, if they 

 should happen to catch it again : other fishermen 

 condemn this practice, stating that it is unsportsman- 

 like to mutilate fish in this manner, and also that 

 these marks are not sufficiently distinctive for the 

 purpose of identification. In relation to this an 

 extract from an old and a very rare work may prove 

 interesting. In 1480 a Latin book, entitled Dialogus 

 creaturarmn optime moralizatiis, was published, and of 

 this a translation appeared about the year 1520, 

 entitled "The Dialoges of Creatures Moralysed. 

 Applyably and edificatyfly, to euery mery and 

 jocunde mater, of late translated out of latyn into our 

 Englysshe tonge right profitable to the gouernaunce 

 of man." 



The forty-eighth dialogue treats 



OF A FlSSHER AND A LYTYLL FlSSH. 



A fissher as he fisshed he cawght a lytell fissh 

 ind whan he wolde haue kylled him he spake and 

 lyde. O gentyll Fissher haue mercye uppon me, 

 for yf thou kyl me thou shalt haue but lytel 

 auauntage of me. But & if thou wilt suffre me to go 

 fre and delyeuer me from this daunger & captuitye I 

 )romise to God and to the, that I shall cawse the to 

 laue greate wynnynge, for I shal retourne unto the 

 laylye withe greate multitude of fisshes and I shall 

 lede them in to thy nettis. To whom the fissher 

 tyd. How shall I mowe knowe the emonge so 

 many fisshes. Then sayd ye fissh. Cut of a lytell 

 of my tayle that thou mayst know me emong al 

 othir. The fissher gaue credence to his woordis and 

 cut of his tayle & let him go. This lytel fissh was 



