Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

304 "THE NILE IS EGYPT"reconstruct in part the manner and social economy of theAncient Egyptians, but also to gather, aided by excavatedtackle, fairly accurate knowledge of their various devices forcatching fish. And so to the rehgious conception whichfostered the adornment of the tombs the gratitude of all fishermenis due, and should be deep.If the god Hapi, who is represented with the girdle of afisherman round his loins, and bearing lotus flowers, fowl,and fish, was hymned by the people as " the Creator of allthings good," to the Father of Rivers ithe Father of Historyrenders tribute for his gift of one " thing good " which furnishedto all,bar kings and priests, a stable and staple food, fish.Its economic importance can hardly be over-rated.Testimony as to its cheapness and abundance is not wanting.Of such is the wail of the poorer folk that the price of cornmight be that of fish. 2 Not less impressive rings the plaint ofwandering Israel—even heaven-sent manna apparently paUs—!" we remember the fish we did eat in Egypt for naught."The Egyptians accounted the fish plague, next to the death ofthe firstborn, as direst in result.Confirmatory witnesses are Diodorus Siculus, who notesthe great number and the many varieties of fish found inthe Nile, 3 and iElian, who neatly and truly characterises theaftermath of the annual inundation as " a harvest of fish." ^Evidence, again, of "a plenty" of fish, its pursuit, and itscopious consumption fronts us in the prehistoric kitchenmiddensand in the bone or horn harpoons of pre-dynasticgraves. Later, the frequent tomb fishing-scenes and sometextual notices attest absence of dearth.The numerous slate palettes in the pre-dynastic gravesfurnish Mr. Bates with further proof, and with a new theory,^ The Nile is the second longest river in the world (Perthes, TaschenAtlas). The Egyptians believed that it sprang from four sources at thetwelfth gate of the nether world, at a place described in ch. 146 of the Bookof the Dead, and that it came to light at the two whirlpools of the first cataract.2 Brugsch., Diet. Supplem., 1915. Cf. Stele de Van VIII. de Rameses II., byAhmed Bey Kamal [Rec. trav., etc., vol. 30, pp. 216-217). The King, as aninstance of how well his workmen are provided for, cites the fact that specialfishermen are allotted to them.=>I. 36-* N. H., X. 43, &ix7}ros IxOvuv.