Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

^314 TACKLERoman times, are well designed, but their barbs are lessintelligently placed than are those of the Middle Kingdom. ^But even in Roman times several types of hook, fairlywell distributed in the Northern Mediterranean, seem unknownin Egypt ; for instance, double hooks, barbed or barbless,of the Bronze Age in Switzerland, hooks with a spUt eye oran eye made by twisting the end of the shank round itself (asfound in Crete) and many others are yet to seek. 2The cluster or gang hook early confronts us in the tomb ofGem-Ni-Kai.3 The fisherman here extends his index fingerto feel the faintest bite : below the water the Une ends in acluster of five hooks, one of which holds a large fish.The ancient monuments sometimes portray fishing from aboat with hand-lines. Those of the Old Kingdom as often asnot depict the fisher as an elderly peasant, presumably nolonger equal to the brisker business of hauling a heavy seine.Occasionally two lines are employed, as in the scene whichBlackman 4 describes: "A small reed skiff, containing twomen, one of whom, loUing at ease in the stern, has just secureda catch upon one of his lines, while his companion, standingupright in the bow, is pulhng his loaded net out of thewatef."Another instance of hand-lining comes from Beni Hasan.The same register contains a representation which is not onlythe earliest (c. 2000 B.C.) of fishing with a Rod known in thewhole world, but is also (with the exception of that from thetomb of Kenamun at Thebes 6) the only depictment, I believe,of the Rod till we reach Greece about the sixth century B.C.Unless the passion for sport pure and simple dominatedrich and poor alike, we can fairly surmise that Angling yieldedgood results. The man in the Beni Hasan illustration, whethera fishing ghillie, or a professional fisherman belonging to the^ Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, p. 34.* Bates, p. 249.^3 F. von Bissing, Die Mastaha des Gem-Ni-Kai (Berlin, 1905), vol. I., mPI. IV. ^fig. 2.* Op. cit.. vol. III., PI. VI* P. E.Newberry, Beni Hasan (London, 1893), Part i, PI. 29. Cf. Wilkinson,op cit., vol. I., PI. 371.* Ibid., PI. 370. This faces my introduction.