shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all? Amos iii. 5.

Ancient writers combine with the existing monuments to shew the extent to which the fisheries of Egypt were prosecuted, and the importance which was attached to them. Herodotus and others speak of the immense number of fishes supplied by the Nile and its canals; he and Diodorus affirm that the royal profits derived from the fishery of the lake Moeris alone, which were assigned to the queen, as "pin-money," for the purchase of jewellery, ornaments and perfumery, amounted to a talent of silver per day, or 70,000l. per year. Michaud informs us, that even now the small lake Menzaleh yields a yearly income of 800 purses, or upwards of 8000%

66

*

Salted, as well as fresh fish, were much eaten in Egypt, both in the Thebais, and the lower country, as the sculptures and ancient authors inform us; and at a particular period of the year, every person was obliged, by a religious ordinance, to eat a fried fish before the door of his house, with the exception of the priests, who were contented to burn it on that occasion." +

The Holy Scriptures are not wanting in references to this abundance and estimation of fish in Egypt. In the threat of the first plague brought upon Pharaoh, and in the record of its fulfilment, it is mentioned, as an aggravation of the punishment, that "the fish that was in the river died;"‡ and in the + Wilkinson iii. 57.

*Corr. de l'Or. vi. 1. 156.

Exod. vii. 18, 21.

triumphal recapitulation by the Psalmist, of the wonders wrought by Jehovah in the land of Ham, it is not forgotten that He "slew their fish."* There is a very remarkable denunciation in the prophet Ezekiel, in which allusion is made not only to the fish of the Nile, but also to the esteem in which the river itself was held in Egypt, and to its diffusion through the land by means of its canals. The haughty monarch himself is addressed under the significant emblem of the leviathan of the Nile, the mailed crocodile.

Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt: speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself. But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales. And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee. and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee, for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven. And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. Ezek. xxix. 2-6.

One of the first complaints which the children of Israel uttered when they found themselves in the dreary desert, shews the nature and the abundance of the food to which they had been habituated during their sojourn in Egypt. "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely."+

* Ps. cv. 29.

+ Numb. xi. 5.

Representations of the various modes of catching fish, the carrying of them to market, and the curing of them for preservation, are so numerous, that we are at a loss which to select for illustration of our sub

ject.

Sometimes a grave Egyptian gentleman, with much attention to comfort, having had a mat spread by the side of a fish-pond in his garden, and a chair

ANGLING.

placed upon it, sits with his rod and line, as philosophically patient as the patriarchal Walton himself.

Sometimes in the same picture which depicts a fowling-scene among the byblus reeds of the Nile, another boat is introduced, the owner of which, likewise attended by his family, is engaged in

spearing large fishes with the bident or two-pointed spear.

But more commonly the net was employed: it was ordinarily of a long form, and what is known as a drag-net, with wooden floats and leaden weights. Though sometimes used in a boat, it was more customary for those who were engaged to stand on the shore, and drag it up the shelving bank. The accompanying scene unites both modes. The boat is a larger craft than usual, and carries a mast, the fish caught being hung to dry on lines stretched between the shrouds. A kite is sitting on the mast-head, waiting for the entrails of the fish. The zig-zag lines by which water is always represented in Egyptian art, are in the original continued over the i.