LEVIATHAN-FISHING 403 
words “cast in the Nile.” But in a river, as every child 
knows, fishing is pursued by more methods than that of the 
Rod. Judging from the literature of our six Nations fishing 
by hand-line was far and away more general than by Rod ; 
the ratio between the two would indeed, I think, work out at 
some 100 to I. 
If then the words, “cast in the Nile,” do not furnish the 
implication claimed, can we find any other words in the three 
passages which do? The one word common to them all is 
hakkah, hook: if this fail the claimants, how or whence can 
they establish the implication ? 
Let us now see whither the implication from hakkah leads 
us. Obviously in Job, to angling with a Rod for “ Leviathan ” 
or crocodile!! The absurdity is already manifest. Let us, 
however, in our hunt for the snark-like implication examine 
the remaining tackle of this intrepid angler. Fortunately for 
us, conjecture as to the hook or the bait is unnecessary. 
The Petrie collection at the University of London preserves 
a hook, which in Ptolemaic times was employed in the Nile 
for the capture—not of crocodiles—but merely of large fish, 
such as Lates niloticus. It measures over one foot in length, 
with a shank over 24 inches in width. 
The account of crocodile fishing by the Egyptians left us 
by Herodotus? prescribes the bait—no less an one than a 
1 At the beginning of the world (Buddha tells the Monk of Jetavana) all 
the fishes chose Leviathan for their King. No hint as to what fish this 
Leviathan represented is given us: but the Leviathan conceived by the 
Talmudists seems to have been an indefinable sea-monster, of which the female 
lay coiled round the earth till God, fearing that her progeny might destroy 
the new globe, killed her and salted her flesh and put it away for the banquet 
which at the end awaits the pious of the earth. On that day Gabriel will 
kill the male also, and make a tent out of his skin for the Elect who are bidden 
to the banquet (Robinson, op. cit.,p.8). As Robinson is somewhat misleading, 
especially as regards the word Leviathan, I give the story as told by Buddha 
with reference to Anqulimata from Jataka, nv. 537, vol. V. p. 462. A certain 
king had been a Yakkha, and still wanted to eat human flesh. His commander- 
in-chief tells him a tale to warn him. ‘‘ Once upon a time there were 
great fishes in the Ocean. One of them, Ananda, was made king of all the 
fish, ate the other fish, and finally ate his own tail thinking it was a fish. 
The remaining fish smelling blood, devoured Ananda’s tail until they reached 
his head, and all that was left of Ananda was a heap of bones.” Leviathan is 
a gloss of Robinson’s, because the only word in the text which could in any 
degree correspond to Leviathan is Maha Maccho=great fish. For the election 
of a King of fish, see also the Natta Jataka, and the Ubrida Jataka. 
2 Bk. II. 70. 
