Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—OCTOPUS AND TOBACCO—LEISTERING 179''By those who curious have their art defined,Four sorts of fishers are distinct assigned.The first in Hooks deHght : here some prepareThe Angle's Taper Length, and Twisted hair.Others the tougher threads of flax entwine,But firmer hands sustain the sturdy Line.A third prevails by more compendious ways,WhUe numerous Hooks one common Line displays."We then pass to fishing by Nets, Mazy Weel, and Spearsor Tridents. A spirited passage, spoilt in the translation bysuperfluous verbiage, sings of nocturnal fishing with spearsand an attracting light. The method probably obtained theworld over, certainly in China, Rome, and Greece, wherePlato {Soph., 220 D.) classes it under the heading nvpevTiKiinext to Angling. In Scotland it prevailed extensively, ifillegally, as Burning the Water, or Leistering, a Norse term,and practice which Thor himself did not disdain. A passagefrom a lost comedy The Trident—perhaps by Philippides,shows a fisher armed with a three-pronged fork and hornlanternoff a-Tunnying.iThe lines ring as true to-day as when Oppian 2 penned them." Erected torches blaze around the Boat,And dart their pitchy Rays . . .Admiring shoals the gaudy flames surround,And meet the triple spear's descending wound,"while if fishing were legally permitted only to those who cameup to his ideal of what an angler should be (III. 29-31)," First be the Fisher's limbs compact and sound,With solid flesh, and well braced sinews bound.Let due proportion every part commend.Nor Leanness shrink too much, or Fat distend,"' IV. 640. Cf. Oppian, cyneg., 4, 140 fE. for a similar description.* This method, originating from the curiosity of fish and their desire (inShelley's words) " to worship the delusive flame," is especially successful in riversat the spawning season. In the Rhodian Laws—a code for the government ofmariners and fishermen originally promulgated by Tiberius—occurs a specialproviso, re fishing by means of torches, forbidding fishermen to display lightsat sea, lest thereby they should deceive other vessels. It has been suggested,prettily, but I fear not practically, that leistering was learnt from the huntinghabit and natural endowments of the Halcyon or Kingfisher ;just as to thebrilliancy of its colours and splendour of its flash the fish are attracted, soto the brightness of the torches and the shimmer of their rays come thesalmon, etc.