FISHING AND FISH-HOOKS, ETC. 828 
in shipbuilding, and to whom the present age is a 
prehistoric time. This earliest fishing-boat was hewn 
out of the trunk of a tree; but we are not informed 
of the nature of the instruments—whether nets or 
otherwise—with which the fish were caught; and it 
remained for the higher genius of Vulcan, who, be- 
yond doubt, is the Tubal Cain spoken of by Moses, 
and who, as Sanchoniatho informs us, was the son of 
Halieus, to bring the invention to its much higher 
degree of perfection. There were giants in the world 
in those days, and the floating tree may have been 
suitable to the stature of its builder; but as is the 
case with most men who have been distinguished for 
eminent mental qualifications, this remarkable in- 
ventor appears to have been of even small stature, and 
to him, therefore, the less unwieldy vessel, the pro- 
totype of the coracle, built of planks, would be more 
appropriate. But as well as being of small size, he 
may even have been deformed; for, added to the 
fact that by the more modern mythologists he was re- 
presented as a cripple, Herodotus refers to something 
peculiar in his appearance as recorded by those whose 
traditions are the most authentic, the Egyptians and 
Pheenicians. This writer, in alluding to the actions of 
the Persian Cambyses in Egypt, says that he forced 
an entrance into the temple of Vulcan, which was 
regarded as royally sacred, and derided the image of 
the god there worshipped ; which, indeed, resembled 
