Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—;i88^LIAN—FIRST ARTIFICIAL FLYwhich hovers on the river. It is not like flies found elsewhere,nor does it resemble a wasp in appearance, nor inshape would one justly describe it as a midge or a bee, yetit has something of each of these. In boldness it is like ally, in size you might call it a midge, it imitates the colour ofa wasp, and it hums like a bee. The natives generally call itthe Hippouros." These flies seek their food over the river, but do not escapethe observation of the fish swimming below. When then thefish observes a fly on the surface, it swims quietly up, afraidto stir the water above, lest it should scare away its preythen coming up by its shadow, it opens its mouth gently andgulps down the fly, like a wolf carrying ofl a sheep from thefold or an eagle a goose from the farmyard ; having done thisit goes below the rippling water."Now though the fishermen know of this, they do not usethese flies at all for bait for fish ; for if a man's hand touchthem, they lose their natural colour, their wings wither, andthey become unfit food for the fish. For this reason they havenothing to do with them, hating them for their bad character ;but they have planned a snare for the fish,and get the betterof them by their fisherman's craft."They fasten red (crimson red) wool round a hook, and fixon to the wool two feathers which grow under a cock's wattles,and which in colour are like wax. Their rod is six feet long,and their line is the same length. Then they throw theirsnare, and the fish, attracted and maddened by the colour,comes straight at it, thinking from the pretty sight to get adainty mouthful ; when, however, it opens its jaws, it iscaught by the hook and enjoys a bitter repast, a captive."The lines which describe the making up of the flyayKiarpoj TrtpifiaWovcrLv tpiov (poiviKovv, rjf)f.ioaTai re tQ ^pW' ^'^^TTTtpa oXeKTpvovog vnu toi^ KoXXaloig irtcfiVKOTa Kcil Kt]pii) Ti)v \puav7rpoatiKa(Tf.uva ^—are translated in Westwood and Satchell's Bibl.Pise, and by Mr. Lambert quite differently.to>^ Jacobs adopts Kt^ptf, instead of Gesner's xp''0' chiefly because it iswritten thus quite clearly in the Codex Augustanus. It also seems to lit thecontext better.