CHAPTER XXVII 
FISHERIES—ATTEMPTED CORRELATION OF THE PRICE 
OF FISH THEN AND NOW—SPAWNING 
“ When a (fisherman) father casts his net, his fate is in the hands 
of God. In truth there is no calling which is not better than it.” * 
Tue classification of Egyptian society made by Herodotus 2 
merits mention if only on account of its unexpected gradations ; 
(A) Priests, (B) Warriors, (C) Cowherds, (D) Swineherds, 
(E) Tradesmen, (F) Interpreters, (G) Boatmen. The position 
allotted to the cowherd and swineherd before the tradesman, 
if startling to modern eyes, characterises most early societies. 
“For trader,” as Seymour shows, “ Homer knows no word.” 3 
Fishermen, although unnamed but presumably included under 
boatmen, figure last, a rank consonant with that assigned by 
the Scribe above. 
If their life was socially of the lowest and their toil of the 
hardest, they must have earned a modest living, even though 
no tacksman millionaire finds record. We may fairly assume 
a general and constant demand for fish from (A) the revenues 
yielded by fisheries, and (B) the taxes paid by fishermen. 
Of (A) Lake Meeris affords a striking instance. When the 
water retired from the lake to the Nile, the daily sale realised 
one talent of silver (reckoned by Wilkinson at {193 I5s. od.), 
and when the current set the other way one-third of that sum, 
but in all some £45,000 yearly. We learn that the proceeds 
1 Maspero, Du genre épistolaire chez les Egyptiens, p. 65 f. 
21]. 164. C£, however, II. 47. It is not quite clear whether the order of 
the list is intentional. If so, it is certainly justifiable from the point of view 
of primitive or early society. 
3 See p. 65, antea. 
* Herod., II. 149. 
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