26 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



with a sharp-edged iron plate, of crescent-like shape.* But it appears 

 this art was not attended with that success which resulted from the 

 " throw stick/ 'f the more favourite method of fowling*. 



The " throw-stick" was a flat-shaped missile, made of hardened 

 heavy wood, of from fifteen to twenty-four inches in length hy one- 

 and-a-half in breadth, and ahout half-an-inch in thickness, the outer- 

 edge being thin and rather sharp. The upper end of the stick was 

 slightly curved, the whole being similar in form to the boomerang of 

 the New Hollander. 



An expert fowler was able to throw this weapon a considerable dis- 

 tance, and with remarkable accuracy ; and it appears from some of 

 the plates of Egyptian bird-catching, that the fowler's aim with the 

 throw-stick was chiefly directed at the neck of the bird ; and that it 

 was an art more particularly adapted to taking wild-ducks, geese, 

 herons, and birds with long necks, rather than others. 



The fowler was accompanied on excursions of this kind by two or 

 more attendants ; some of whom were children, and all had certain 

 duties to perform, being placed in relative positions in the fowler's 

 boat. The water-fowl were either approached under ambuscade of 

 rushes or papyrus, or the fowler and his assistants placed themselves 

 in concealed positions, and, by aid of decoy-birds, enticed the fowl to 

 advance. The duty of the youngest or smallest occupant of the boat, 

 appears to have been that of attending the decoy-bird, which in every 

 representative scene of the kind, stands on the prow of the boat ; the 

 fowler also holds one or more live decoy-fowl in his left hand ; and, 

 it would seem, that the object of such proceeding was to entice the 

 wild-birds to fly near the captives, that the fowler might have the 

 more favourable opportunity of discharging his missiles, and with 

 greater certainty of success. These decoy-birds were held up by the 

 fowler above the level of the reeds or other ambuscades ; and from 

 the fluttering position of their wings, it seems reasonable to suppose 

 that, at certain junctures, the fowler, by squeezing their legs, or some 

 other manoeuvre, caused them to call out, and so attract the notice of 

 those the immediate objects of his diversion. 



* Champollion-le- Jeune, Monuments de 1'Egypte, vol. iv., elephant folio. This is a 

 most costly and elaborate work ; it occupied ten years in completion. The engrav- 

 ings are executed in the highest style of perfection, and the entire work printed on 

 large folio sheets, comprising five volumes. It contains graphical illustrations of the 

 whole of Rossellini's plates of Egyptian Antiquities. 



f Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii. cap. 8. 



