ANCIENT PISHINa-TACKLE. 21 



They were of two classes, intoxicating and poisonous. 

 Pliny records tliat all aristolochias yield an aromatic 

 smell, but that one, called popularly ' the earth's poison,' 

 is successfully used by the Campanian fishermen for the 

 purposes of their craft. 'I have seen them use the 

 plant,' says he, ' iucorporating it with lime and throw- 

 ing detached pellets into the sea, one of which was no 

 sooner swallowed, than the fish, immediately turning 

 over, floated up dead.* But the most interesting of 

 these fish-poisons is unquestionably prepared from the 

 cyclamen, or sow-bread, two species of which possess the 

 property of drugging them in a remarkable degree, the 

 C. hederaefoUum and the C. Neapolitanum. The lazza- 

 roni, from whom we first learnt the quahties of this 

 plant, stated that they were in the habit of mixing it 

 with other ingredients, in a paste they call lateragna; 

 which is then either thrown in lumps from a boat, or 

 enclosed in a bag, and thrust by means of a long pole 

 among the rocks, when, if any fish are within smell, the 

 crew are sure of a good haul; it was found, they said, parti- 

 cularly successful in the capture of cephali and generally 

 of aU. low-swimming fish, whose nostrils come in more 

 immediate contact with it on the ground. The follow- 

 ing passage from Cavaliere Tenore's ' Neapolitan Flora' 

 quite confirms the correctness of these statements: — 



Tte conunon people are well acquainted with the acrid pro- 

 perties of tlie cyclamen, which, our fishermen, having properly 

 pounded and prepared, drop into the hollows of rocks, where 

 fish generally lie ; they almost immediately becoming intoxicated, 

 swim giddily about on the surface, and are easily taken. It is 

 also a custom to fill a porous bag with the bruised bulb, and to 

 throw it into holes along the sides of rivers or lakes, which drugs 

 aU the water in the vicinity. 



* The lime here was probably the occasion of death, though 

 aiistolochia may be a fish-poison. Even small quantities of lime 

 thrown into a pond wiU speedily destroy the fi«h, as is well known 

 to every poacher and poaching school-boy. 



