318 TACKLE 
a hand-net, and gripping the end with his toes, while a lad, 
preparing twine, rubs his spindle on his thigh.! 
Actual specimens of Net twine prepared from flaxen and 
other vegetable fibres were discovered at Kahun in balls of 
two-strand and of three-strand string of the XIIth Dynasty. 
Fragments of Nets “ having } to ? inch (1-2 to I°g cm.) mesh, 
the smallest being 4 inch (say 0°3 cm.) square,” came to hand 
at the same locality.? 
Kahun yielded also some fragments of later, probably 
XVIIIth Dynasty, Nets, with meshes from 0°5 to 1'5 cm. and 
made of coarser twine than the earlier examples,? whose 
fineness of mesh tallies with the small size of some of the 
ancient needles. 
Weels or wicker fisher traps (especially in the Old Kingdom) 
come down to us either small (about x m. 50 long), simply 
constructed, and capable of manipulation by two men, or very 
large, of more complex fashioning internally, and requiring 
several men to handle.4 
Whether the Egyptians employed poisons, like most of the 
Mediterranean nations, I have not discovered. As examples, 
they are impossible of survival; for depictment of their actual 
use not even the boldest Nilotic Cubist would have been 
adequate, unless he imitated the Athenian artist by hiero- 
glyphing ‘“‘ These be poisons ”’ ! 
1 J. J. Tylor, The Tomb of Pahevi (London, 1865), Pl. VI., probably XVIIIth 
ae Petrie, Kahun, p. 28. 
3 Tbid., p. 34. 
4 Illustrations of both kinds can be found in Steindorf’s Das Grab des Ti, 
Pls. CX. and CXI, 
