FISHING AND FISH-HOOKS, ETC 325 



have been made of gold ; for Vulcan himself also bore 

 a name equivalent to Chrysor, from the works he 

 executed in that precious metal ; and we are borne 

 out in this last conjecture by the fact, that a golden 

 fish-hook has been found buried in the sand of a small 

 trout-stream in Cornwall We will not affirm that 

 this is of Phoenician origin, although a metallic ball 

 found in that county may lay claim to that distant 

 parentage ; and still less will we venture to say that it 

 may have come from the skilful hands of Tubal Cain 

 himself, who was otherwise called Hiphastus and 

 Zeus Michiris, which last word signifies the " god- 

 mechanic ;" but it is of skilful workmanship, and is 

 preserved for its curiosity in a museum in its perhaps 

 doubly native county. 



But in bringing again before the public these long- 

 buried reminiscences of ancient times, we must not 

 overlook the fisher-girl, whose elegant appearance was 

 such as to have formed the ideal of the Goddess 

 of Beauty. It is to the associations with the pur- 

 suits of her family that we can trace the origin of 

 the opinion that the Venus of antiquity was a pro- 

 duce of the ocean in corroboration of which there 

 exists an ancient representation of her as seated on a 

 sea-shell and borne above the sea by marine beings. 

 This sister of Tubal Cain was called Naamah, which 

 so much in sound resembles Nemaus, who was said 

 to be the wife, or one of the wives, of Chronus or 



