164 



CHAPTER XI. 



OBSERVATIONS ON THE TENCH ; AND ADVICE HOW TO ANGLE 

 FOR' HIM. 



[Jpourti) Bag.] 



Pise. The Tench, the physician of fishes, is observed to 

 love ponds better than rivers, and to love pits better than 

 either : yet Camden observes, there is a river in Dorsetshire 

 that abounds with tenches, but doubtless they retire to the 

 most deep and quiet places in it. 



This fish hath very large fins, very small and smooth 

 scales, a red circle about his eyes, which are big and of a gold 

 colour, and from either angle of his mouth there hangs down 

 a little barb. In every tench's head there are two little 

 stones which foreign physicians make great use of, but he is 

 not commended for wholesome meat, though there be very 

 much use made of them for outward applications. Rondeletius 

 says, that at his being at Home, he saw a great cure done by 

 applying a tench to the feet of a very sick man. This, he 

 says, was done after an unusual manner, by certain Jews. 

 And it is observed, that many of those people have many 

 secrets yet unknown to Christians ; secrets that have never 

 yet been written, but have been (since the days of their 

 Solomon, who knew the nature of all things, even from the 

 cedar to the shrub) delivered by tradition, from the father 

 to the son, and so from generation to generation, without 

 writing ; or (unless it were casually), without the least com- 

 municating them to any other nation or tribe ; for to do 

 i that they account a profanation. And yet it is thought 

 1 that they, or some spirit worse than they, first told us 

 that lice swallowed alive, were a certain cure for the vellow- 

 j aim dice. This, and many other medicines, were discovered 

 by them, or by revelation ; for, doubtless, we attained them 

 not by study. 



Well, this fish, besides his eating, is very useful both dead 

 and alive for the good of mankind. But I will meddle no 

 more with that ; my honest humble art teaches no such 

 boldness ; there are too many foolish meddlers in physic and 

 divinity, that think themselves fit to meddle with hidden 

 secrets, and so bring destruction to their followers. But I'll 



