POLYNEME. 
190 
of seventy pounds and upwards. The largest of this 
kind are caught about Rosetta ; but they are found 
in greater numbers higher up the Nile, and particu- 
larly near the first cataract, and at Syene. The 
inhabitants have a very singular way of catching 
these fish, which it seems is attended with great 
success. They prepare a quantity of oil, clay, flour, 
and honey, with straw, or any other material that 
will bind the whole together, and tread it with their 
feet till it be perfectly mixed. They then take two 
handfuls of dates, and break them into small pieces 
about the size of the point of the finger, and stick 
them in different parts of this mixture, which now 
adheres perfectly together, and in form is not un- 
like a Cheshire cheese. In the heart of this cake 
seven or eight hooks, with dates upon them, 
and a string of strong whipcord to each. Thus pre- 
pared, the fisherman commits himself to the river 
upon a blown goat’s skin, carrying the cake before 
him, till he arrives at the middle of the stream; 
there he drops the mass in the deepest part of the 
water, and cautiously holding the ends of each of 
the strings slack, so as not to pull the dates and the 
hooks out of the heart of the composition, he makes 
for the shore again a little below the place where he 
had sunk the bait. He then carefully separates the 
ends of the strings, ties each of them to a palm 
branch, made fast on shore, and at the end of every 
branch hangs a small bell. The business being so far 
settled, he either goes to feed his cattle, dig trenches. 
