324 FISHING GOSSIP. 



those Phoenician figures that were placed on the prow 

 of their ships and were called Pataecians, not exceed- 

 ing the stature of a pigmy. He likewise went into 

 the temple of the Cabirian gods so named from the 

 Cabiri, Phoenician deities according to Sanchoniatho, 

 the statues of which, with caps on their heads, were 

 only about a foot in height, as described by Pau- 

 sanias. Tubal Cain himself was so called, as signi- 

 fying that from his skill the world derived profit, and 

 the name of the Cabiri was significant of the might 

 of these deities ; but the connection between them is 

 proved from the conduct of this madman conqueror, 

 who commanded that the deities in the temple should 

 be thrown into the fire because they so much re- 

 sembled the statues of Vulcan, from whom they were 

 reported to be descended. It is certain that the per- 

 sonage here spoken of was highly reverenced in Egypt, 

 even as one of their greatest gods, under the name of 

 Phtha, although confessedly of Phosnician origin, and 

 that the kings themselves were specially his priests. 



It was this Vulcan or Tubal Cain who in the busi- 

 ness of fishing was the first inventor of the line and 

 baited hook ; the hook, as the Phoenician historian 

 informs us, being made of iron or copper, and, we 

 will venture to affirm, of a better shape than those 

 which are represented in a later age by Dame Juliana 

 Berners in the Book of St. Albans. But these primi- 

 tive fish-hooks, as instruments of great good, may 



