CHAP. v. THE FOURTH DAY. 77 



be got; and therefore let me tell you, I have which I will 

 show you an artificial minnow, that will catch a trout as well 

 as an artificial fly, and it was made by a handsome woman that 

 had a fine hand, and a live minnow lying by her : the mould or 

 body of the minnow was cloth, and wrought upon or over it 

 thus with a needle : the back of it with very sad French green 

 silk, and paler green silk towards the belly, shadowed as 

 perfectly as you can imagine, just as you see a minnow ; the 

 belly was wrought also with a needle, and it was a part of it 

 white silk, and another part of it with silver thread; the tail and 

 fins were of a quill which was shaven thin ; the eyes were of 

 two little black beads, and the head was so shadowed, and all 

 of it so curiously wrought, and so exactly dissembled that it 

 would beguile any sharp-sighted trout in a swift stream. And 

 this minnow I will now show you ; look, here it is, and, if you 

 like it, lend it you, to have two or three made by it ; for they 

 be easily carried about an angler, and be of excellent use ; for 

 note, that a large trout will come as fiercely at a minnow as 

 the highest mettled hawk doth seize on a partridge, or a grey- 

 hound on a hare. I have been told that a hundred and sixty 

 minnows have been found in a trout's belly ; either the trout 

 had devoured so many, or the miller that gave it a friend of 

 mine had forced them down his throat after he had taken him. 



Now for flies, which is the third bait wherewith trouts are 

 usually taken. You are to know that there are so many sorts of 

 flies as there be of fruits : I will name you but some of them ; 

 as the dun-fly, the stone-fly, the red-fly, the moor-fly, the 

 tawny-fly, the shell-fly, the cloudy or blackish-fly, the flag-fly, 

 the vine-fly ; there be of flies, caterpillars, and canker-flies, and 

 bear-flies ; and indeed too many either for me to name, or for 

 you to remember. And their breeding is so various and 

 wonderful, that I might easily amaze myself, and tire you in 

 a relation of them. 



And, yet, I will exercise your promised patience by saying 

 a little of the caterpillar, or the palmer-fly or worm ; that by 

 them you may guess what a work it were, in a discourse, but 

 to run over those very many flies, worms, and little living 



