BRESLAR—MAINZER 405 
If Mr. Breslar surmises (though his words convey no such 
hint) that for his “‘ rudimentary type of Rod in the Scriptures ”’ 
Israel affixed a line to his fishing spear, thus squaring with 
my conjecture in the Introduction as to the evolution of the 
modern Rod, may I respectfully ask why did a race, so pre- 
eminently alert and proverbially acquisitive, handicap itself 
by the selection of such a “‘ rudimentary type”’ in preference 
to a weapon long invented, ready to hand, and far superior ? 
A friend, in the hope of helping me to some authoritative 
information as regards Angling, suggested Jagd, Fischfang, 
und Bienenzucht bet den Juden in der tanndischen Zeit, by Herr 
Moritz Mainzer, as the very last word on Jewish fishing. 
Unable (owing to the War) to obtain this in book form, I 
tracked it eventually to some articles under the same title in 
the magazine, Monatsschrift fiir Geschichte und Wissenschaft des 
Judentums (1909). Except for a pearl or two such as “ Fisher- 
men, then as now in Palestine, worked lightly dressed or naked,”’ 
—was this suggested by St. John, or P. Fletcher’s, “ Now 
when Simon heard, he girt his fisher’s coat unto him, for he was 
naked ’’ ?>—Fischfang (at any rate) far from rewards one’s search. 
Mainzer’s two sentences (p. 463) assist not at all in deter- 
mining whether or not the Jews used the Rod. ‘“‘ Die eigent- 
liche hakkah war ein eiserner an eine Leine (hebhel) befestigter 
Haken. Die Leine selbst konnte mit einer Rute oder einem 
Stabe verbunden sein der zuweilen mehrere Schniire mit 
Angeln trug” (the hakkah proper was an iron hook fastened to 
a fishing hebhel. This line might be attached to a rod or stick, 
which sometimes had on it several cords with fishing hooks). 
The supporting references come from no Israelitish source, 
but from Assyrian representations of hand-lining in Layard’s 
Nineveh, and from Egyptian delineations of Rod fishing in 
Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians. Not a single word does 
Mainzer quote from any authority on Jewish Angling. The 
words, ‘“‘ to a Rod which sometimes had on it several cords 
with fishing hooks,” simply translate Wilkinson’s Plate 371. 
Had I weighed the title and duly appreciated the com- 
bination of Hunting, Fishing, and Bee-culture! I would have 
been perhaps prepared for a disappointment, but the output 
