232 THE ANGLER-NATURALIST. 



diately hooked, his dying moments being further embit- 

 tered by cruel taunts from the trawler, who, after the in- 

 sulting manner of Homer's heroes, reviles him by all his 

 mistresses, and bids him mark the seething caldron on the 

 lighted shore, prepared expressly for his reception. His 

 favourites, on losing their protector, leave their hiding- 

 places, and getting, like other ' unprotected females/ into 

 difficulties, are speedily taken." * 



The f one virtue ' to which, amongst a thousand crimes, 

 the name of the Pike has been linked is gratitude : it has 

 been asserted that he never attacks his physician, the Tench. 

 To this subject I have already referred in the notice of the 

 latter fish. 



Superstition, which has touched almost everything sub- 

 lunary, has not spared the Pike. Some of the qualities and 

 influences attributed to it are not a little singular. Nobbes 

 tells us that ' ' his head is very lean and bony, which bones 

 in his head, shaped like a cross, some have resembled to 

 things of mysterious consequence. ... If these compari- 

 sons smell anything of superstition, yet as to physical use 

 those bones may be profitable : For the jaw-bone beaten 

 to powder may be helpful for pleurises and other com- 

 plaints ; some do approve of it as a remedy for the pain in 

 the heart and lungs ; others affirm that the small bones 

 pulverized may be fitly used to dry up sores ; and many 

 the like Medicinal qualities are attributed to the Pike's 

 head. An ancient Author writing of his Nature of things, 

 * Fish Tattle, p. 27. 



