

THE ANCIENTS. 9 



just noticed, over the surface of the lake on the canal as 

 gently as possible, so as not to disturb the fish lying 

 beneath the broad leaves of the lotus. They plunged the 

 instrument with one or both hands. Some appear to have 

 used a spear, which they darted to a short distance, a line 

 being fastened to it to prevent its being lost. This species 

 of spear was occasionally furnished with feathers, like an 

 arrow, to assist its flight. The end of the line was held 

 in the hand, or wound upon a reel. It is a remarkable 

 circumstance that the South Sea Islanders fish with 

 winged spears nearly in the same manner. 



The Egyptians had abundance of salt fish, which they 

 cured much in the same way as we do. The body was 

 laid open with a knife from the head to the tail, being 

 divided as far as the back-bone, salted, .and exposed in 

 the sun to dry. They had a rule somewhat analogous 

 to our habit of eating salt fish on certain days in Lent. 

 It was imposed upon them also by a religious ordinance, 

 which enjoined that at a particular period of the year 

 every person (the priests alone excepted) should eat a 

 fried fish before the door of his house. The quantity of 

 this cheap provision of nature supplied by the Nile, and 

 transferred from it during the annual inundation to the 

 internal canals and lakes, was in those remote days, as it 

 still is, immense. 



We are told that Gatis, queen of Syria, was so fond 

 of fish that, in order to be continually supplied with them, 

 she ordered that all that were taken in her dominions 



