through the eye of a needle. As coarse fish are usually caught only with
bait, I shall not follow Izaak on to this unholy and unfamiliar ground,
wherein, none the less, grow flowers of Walton's fancy, and the songs of
the old poets are heard. _The Practical Angler_, indeed, is a book to be
marked with flowers, marsh marigolds and fritillaries, and petals of the
yellow iris, for the whole provokes us to content, and whispers that word
of the apostle, 'Study to be quiet.'




FISHING THEN AND NOW


Since Maui, the Maori hero, invented barbs for hooks, angling has been
essentially one and the same thing. South Sea islanders spin for fish
with a mother-of-pearl lure which is also a hook, and answers to our
spoon. We have hooks of stone, and hooks of bone; and a bronze hook,
found in Ireland, has the familiar Limerick bend. What Homer meant by
making anglers throw 'the horn of an ox of the stall' into the sea, we
can only guess; perhaps a horn minnow is meant, or a little sheath of
horn to protect the line. Dead bait, live bait, and imitations of bait
have all been employed, and AElian mentions artificial Mayflies used,
with a very short line, by the Illyrians.

But, while the same in essence, angling has been improved by human
ingenuity. The Waltonian angler, and still more his English
predecessors, dealt much in the home-made. The _Treatise_ of the
fifteenth century bids you make your 'Rodde' of a fair staff even of a
six foot long or more, as ye list, of hazel, willow, or 'aspe' (ash?),