Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—PERSIAN FISHING 51grappling hooks, have been adopted or adapted. In modemArabic itself these words are not used for a fish-hook :a foreign term, prevails,balugh,(B) In Persian, Arabic, and Turkish ^ the expression to fish,literally translated, equals to hunt fish, and generallya man who makes his living by netting, and selhng fish.describes(C) There is no word for fishing-rod in Wollaston's greatEnglish-Persian Dictionary.(D) Proverbs are usually the offspring and embodiment ofthe life and occupations of a nation. In both ancient andmodern Persian there is, as far as I know, but one proverband that rather contemptful—allusive to fish or fishing. Itruns, " Thou shall not make a fish thine enemy," which probablysignifies that no foe, however unlikely to injure, can be despised.(E)In the experiences related to me by the Rev. Dr. St. ClairTisdall, and by the late Sir Frank Lascelles, Netting oustsAngUng.The former 2: " 'Though I have hved in Persia for manyyears and have travelled through it from Sea to Sea, from thePersian Gulf to the Caspian, I have never seen a fish-hook ina Persian's hands. In the districts I know best, the Net is theonly weapon."The second, when our Minister at Teheran, on his firstholiday went a-fishing. Having caught on a likely streambefore supper three or four half-pound trout (I think), heanticipated next day pleasant sport. With the very earlymorning came not Remorse, but the local Sheikh to do hisreverence and to make the customary present. " As I haveheard that His Great Excellency worked hard fora few fishlast night, my tribesmen have netted the river for the lengthof a parasang, and I bring you plenty of fish." Tableau !Hasty flight of Sir Frank to another river, with like results !Reasons both of date and data prevent my including the1 Modern Turkish contains ^(according to Dr. Tisdall) two genuine oldTurkish words for fish-hook, (i) Oltah, {2) ZSngah. This is of great interest,for it goes far to show that the Turks, even before leaving Central Asia, werefamiliar with Angling.* To him, a high authority on Persia, not only from the many years spentthere but also from his great linguistic accomplishments, I am greatly in debtfor much of the foregoing.