Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

2404 ROD NOT EMPLOYED—REASONSchine of pork. The line, then and now {ex necessitate rei),must have been of stout cord, possibly tied to a tree, withprobably some protective material of horn, etc., to preventerosion.Conjure up the picture of this Egyptian piscator—even inthis instance the Jew does not use the Rod, for there are noLeviathansiin Palestine ! Behold him " casting," with aRod of ancient normal length, about six feet, with a rope Uneof ancient normal length, from six to ten feet, a bait of evenhalf the back of a porker ! Surely a picture for gods andmen, more especially the winners of our Casting Competitions,to revere with awe and envy, as a feat of strength and skillunessayable.From these three passages I can find no reason, contextualor piscatorial, to support the contention that the Rod wasused, although to us moderns such use would seem but thenatural thing.Mr. Breslar maintains that Amos iv. 2 authorises theimphcation. He errs either in translation or through misconceptionof the tackle described. The words run, " Theyshall take you away with hooks {zinndth), and your residue withfish-hooks." The Hebrew word for the second, sTroth dugdh,means only hooks, plain and simple, while that for the first,zinndth, signifies also thorns and probably fish-spears, orharpoons.Amos, however, far from thinking of or suggesting a Rod,is looking contrariwise at the end of a Une. His metaphor isdrawn from the non-angling custom prevalent and picturedin Assyrian representations of a conqueror having his captivesdragged by cords fastened by presumable, but naturally notapparent, hooks firm fixed in their Ups. This conception isstrengthened by the fact that hakkdh in its primary etymologicalsense imphes merely something connected with the jaws.^ See, however, an article in The Spectator, Feb. 14, 1920, which assertsthat the existence of crocodiles in the Nahr-ez-Zerka, or the River of Crocodilesof the Crusaders, cannot be questioned, and also H. B. Tristram, Land of Israel(London, 1865), p. 103, to similar but unconvincing effect.' Cf. Isaiah xxxvii, 29, " Therefore will I put my hook (ho}i) in thy nose,and my bridle in thy hps," and 2 Chron. xxxiii, ii, " Which took Manasseh withhooks " (R.V. margin).