6 FISHES OF FANCY. 



the Hebrews might and might not eat, he is careful to 

 distinguish by their names the creatures in fur and feathers, 

 but the fish are merely divided into " those with scales and 

 fins," and "those without." Still more remarkable is it 

 that Peter and his comrades, themselves professional fisher- 

 men, should have omitted to identify the actual species 

 with which the Saviour worked His miracles. In fish 

 history, therefore, there is a very considerable gap, and it 

 is not until we go to Pagan Mythology that we find the 

 things of the water identified into species. 



Of fishing itself we have records from the earliest times, 

 for the Vedas, and of course the Bible, speak of the net 

 and line, spear and hook. But the first of fishers of whom 

 any record remains is undoubtedly that primaeval god of 

 the ichthyophagous Polynesians who existed in the very 

 beginning, and when first heard of was out a-fishing on the 

 face of the waters. And he fished up dry land with a 

 hook and line 



" His hook he baited with a dragon's tail, 

 And sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whale." 



Coeval with this deity were those mighty anglers Thor 

 and Odin, who fished (sometimes for the sea-serpent itself) 

 in the Scandinavian seas. Judging, however, from the fact 

 that in the East the caste is still one of very low degree, 

 and that in the most primitive communities, fish-catching 

 is still the work of women and so distinguished from 

 other kinds of sport, which are always the first and proudest 

 privilege of savage manhood it is not likely that the pri- 

 vate angler was an individual of any importance. Coming 

 down, however, to the classical period, we find the pastime 

 established in popularity and fashion. Kings and their 

 courts amused themselves with the spear and net. Agrippa 



