CRESCENS HARUNDO—WHAT? 147 
piscatorial, but also in the probability that in them we meet 
with the first recorded mention of (a) a Jointed Rod, and 
(b) Fishing with a Fly. The former claim turns on the couplet, 
“ Aut crescente levis traheretur harundine praeda, 
Pinguis et implicitas virga teneret aves.” 
Ep., IX., 54, 3. 
For Jevis there are two other, though less well supported, 
readings, viz. vadis and velis. Is harundo (literally a ‘ reed,’ then 
a ‘rod,’ but used impartially to describe both the weapon of 
the fowler and of the fisher) in these lines a fowler’s reed, or 
a fisher’s rod? The answer, if indeed any be possible, depends 
on the precise meaning to be attached to crescente, having 
regard to the context and the whole epigram. 
Crescente, which some dictionaries, ignoring its use in a 
similar connection in Silius Italicus, VII. 674-77, “ sublimem 
calamo sequitur crescente volucrem,’’ render jointed, can only 
here, I suggest, be properly translated by Jengthening, or 
increasing. But whether this process of increasing was effected 
by real joints cannot be clearly ascertained. 
In his solitary note on crescente Valpy (Delphin edition, 
1823) vouchsafes the bald and not informative comment : 
“Vero mihi videtur intelligenda esse virga que crescat in 
locis palustribus.”’ 
The following explanation is interesting, but to my mind 
indecisive, even though it claims the authority of “the old 
commentators.”’! Cvescente—‘ L’oiseleur caché sous un arbre 
rappelait les oiseaux en imitant leur chant: puis, quand les 
oiseaux étaient sur l’arbre, il allongeait le roseau enduit de glu, 
qu'il tenait a la main et les oiseaux venaient s’y prendre. 
Le poéte dit que le roseau croissait, parcequ’A mesure que 
l'oiseleur se hissait sur ses pieds, la baguette engluée semblait 
croitre en effet. Telle est la maniére dont les commentateurs 
anciens interpretent ce distique.”’ 
Much again depends on whether we read vadis (shallows) 
or Jevis (swift) ; vadis would incline the balance heavily, but 
not absolutely, to the rod, not to the reed. We get no help 
1 Nisard edition of Martial, Paris, 1865. 
