Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

246 TACKLE—CURIOUS METROBS—SILURUS—EELSWhere fish,however, pay any regard whatever to their ova,it is usually, but not always, on the father that the duty falls." Omnium " in Pliny is to be read not with " solus " but with" edita ova." This reading advances the quite different claimthat the Silurus is the only male that includes in its watch andward not merely its own but promiscuously also the eggs ofother fish. Perhaps the same start of surprise awaits him, on thePentecostal and last day of his vigil, as that of the hen whenshe first beholds a mixed brood of chickens and ducklingsemerging from under her breast.Pliny reveals some fabulous uses of the Silurus.In XXXII.28, fresh caught Siluri are an excellent tonic for the voice.In 46, by the smoke and scent of a burnt Silurus, especiallyone hailing from Africa (!), the pangs of child-birth are saidto be greatly eased. In 40, for curing " ignes sacros " or themalady of St. Anthony's fire, the appHcation of the bellies ofliving frogs, or of ashes from a Silurus, were two of the nostrumsrecommended.The fourth and last method, for the capture of Eels, givenby yElian,! although almost certainly cribbed from Oppian,-but with a local habitation and a name carefully thrown in tosuggest originality, reads much as follows :The eeler from a high bank of the " river Eretaenus, wherethe eels are the largest and by far the fattest of all eels," letsdown at a turn of the stream some cubits' length of the intestinesof a sheep. An eel, seizing a bit of it at the nether end, triesto drag the whole away, on which the fisher applies the otherend (which is fixed to a long tubular reed serving the place ofa fishing rod) to his mouth, and blows into the sheep's gut.This presently swells ; the fish receiving the air in his mouthswells too, and unable to extricate his teeth is lugged out,adhering to the inflated intestines. 3" Gin these be joys of artful eeling, oh ! gie me Essex1 XIV. 8.- Hal., IV. 450 ff.^ " Bobbing for eels," with a bunch of worms on worsted is of hke principle,but lacks the pneumatic touch. The eels seem to get their teeth caught in theworsted, and are pulled out before they can let go. See antea, p. 42, for the garfishof the Solomon Islands being caught from a kite by a hookless spider'sweb.1