A HARD-WORKING DIET. 377 



population of Egypt, during the time of bondage 

 had been fish eaters. There are many references in 

 their history made to this, e.g. in the book of Numbers 

 (xi. 5). " We remember the fish which we did eat in 

 Egypt freely." They adopted a somewhat similar 

 division between the clean and unclean to that in 

 vogue in Egypt. The Mosaic distinction, which 

 classed fish which had not fins and scales as unclean, 

 was proved by experience to be ambiguous, and led . 

 to many ingenious comments and evasions by Talmudic 

 writers. It was, however, similar to that of the Arabic 

 lawgiver, El Hakim, who would allow none of the 

 finless and scaleless fish to be sold in the markets of 

 Egypt. 



Long prior to the conquest of Canaan that land 

 had been one of the chief sources of the fish . supply 

 of Egypt, and the names Sidon (Saidu), "the fish 

 town," and the two villages of Bethsaida ("house of 

 fish ") on the Sea of Galilee, still remain to tell of the 

 fisher life of the people. In the time of the historian 

 Nehemiah, Tyrian merchants traded in Jerusalem in 

 sea fish, in the market near the fishgate. The Sea 

 of Galilee furnished the markets of Jerusalem with 

 fresh fish, and during Roman rule a high rent was 

 paid for the right of fishery over the lake, a distinct 

 body of tax collectors being appointed to gather the 

 dues. 



In the richly watered valleys of the Tigris and Assyria. 

 Euphrates fish was also largely adopted as an article 

 of food, and the monuments of Nineveh furnish 

 illustrations of the various modes of capture employed. 

 As in Egypt, fishing both by net and by line was 

 practised, while attached to the palaces of the kings 



