324 FISHING GOSSIP. 
those Pheenician figures that were placed on the prow 
of their ships and were called Patecians, not exceed- 
ing the stature of a pigmy. He likewise went into 
the temple of the Cabirian gods—so named from the . 
Cabiri, Phoenician deities according to Sanchoniatho, 
the statues of which, with caps on their heads, were 
only about a foot in height, as described by Pau- 
sanias, Tubal Cain himself was so called, as signi- 
fying that from his skill the world derived profit, and 
the name of the Cabiri was significant of the might 
of these deities ; but the connection between them is 
proved from the conduct of this madman conqueror, 
who commanded that the deities in the temple should 
be thrown into the fire because they so much re- 
sembled the statues of Vulcan, from whom they were 
reported to be descended. It is certain that the per- 
sonage here spoken of was highly reverenced in Egypt, 
even as one of their greatest gods,.under the name of 
Phtha, although confessedly of Phcenician origin, and 
that the kings themselves were specially his priests. 
It was this Vulcan or Tubal Cain who in the busi- 
ness of fishing was the first inventor of the line and 
baited hook ; the hook, as the Pheenician historian 
informs us, being made of iron or copper, and, we 
will venture to affirm, of a better shape than those 
which are represented in a later age by Dame Juliana 
Berners in the Book of St. Albans. But these primi- 
tive fish-hooks, as instruments of great good, may 
