Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/458

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 g. n. D E r. 2, me.

further. The Hebrew language is economical ih the matter of " word-power," making one form and several derivatives do an immense amount of work. I could give dozens of examples in illustration of this fact. But let us confine ourselves to chayvel only. In Josh. ii. 15 it means " a rope " ; in 2 Sam. viii. 2 "a measuring rod " ; also " a net " and a province. Chovoleem = " hand-lines " for fishing ; chovile = mariner ; and in Prov. xxiii. 34 it means a long pole or mast, made out of whitethorn, an excellent material for constructing harpoons with copper or iron heads, to attack whales, sharks, and croco- diles (tannineem). Such may have been the tzilzal dogeem and sookous mentioned by the author of Job xl. 31, those made of wood, perhaps, being shot from a bow (kayshess), if Isa. xviii. 1, tzilzal kenofahyim (flying shafts), permits of the inference we draw from the phrase. A similar weapon was the choach, or " thorn," used for spearing fish, such as salmon, sturgeon, and dolphins ; but choach also means " a hook " ; the duality of use should not be overlooked from which the " rod idea " is mentally deleted. Besides these termss we have rayshess, a hand-net ; michmouress, a drag-net ; chayrem, a hook which was worked " with line and rod " in the Sea of Tiberias (Baba Kamma, Sib). But the rod might have been called by the Hebrew writers klee in conjunction with gomeh (cork), Isa. xviii. 2 ; klei kayseff silver vessels ; klei milchomo (munitions) ; klei sheer (musical instruments). So that we have only to add klei melzoodo, and we get " fishing-rods."

That this or a similar phrase is not found in the Bible is merely an acci- dental omission like, I believe, that of the name of Jehovah from the Book of Esther. I go further and say this. Supposing that l>y magic and enchantment I could recall to life Chounay Hahmaggol, the Rip Van Winkle of Talmudic times, and were to ask him to describe all the parts of the vehicle (angolo) from which he derived his name, he would describe the sides as tziddim, but would have to call the boards composing them eife = wood, and the axle and the shafts klei hoangolo the Hebrew language wanting at that time the analytical faculty of assigning words for every separate part of the article in question. Similarly we might safely apply the word chayvel, or klee, or yod (handle), or konay, to the part of the fishing tack'e not explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures. Futhermore, in Keilim, l-6b, we find the term knei mouznahyim to indicate the wooden bar that connects " the weighing scales."

But against Chounay 's imaginary rep lies r I have also to set down here the actual responses sent me by a friend of mine, Mr. William Pyle of Denmark Hill, in answer to my inquiries on that subject. He writes that large fish may be taken with hand-lines only (i.e., without any kind of rod) from the bank or a boat. A pike weighing 10 Ib. was caught in this way near St. Ives, with live bait attached to hand-lines. A countryman will attach these lines (reminding us of the klei gomeh in Isa. xviii. 2) to large corks, and catch fish in this fashion from a boat (a practice which in Baba Kamma, 81b, it was the object of the Rabbins to prevent, as the reader will remember). Fish weighing 80 Ib. have been taken with hand-lines in the sea. The corks prevent the lines drifting with the currents out of the reach of the fisherman. Mr. Pyle has himself seen men working from the shore at Aldeburgh and other places near Saxmundham, with four lines which had been cast with a rod a thorn stick cut from the hedgerows, about 4 feet in length, which had a V-shaped head for holding the lines during the act of throwing (lehashlich) them. Corks are, apparently, discarded in this mode of fishing, but a heavy stone is attached to the end of the line on the shore, to prevent its being dragged into the water when cast,, or being carried away by the fish. This is referred to in Shobbos, 18a.

So far as I can see, there is nothing in these observations that directly invalidates the reasonings I have adduced for some rudi- mentary type of fishing-rod in the Scriptures : and in further confirmation of my theory I would respectfully refer the reader to Isa. xix. 8 and Amos iv. 2 for verbal forms suggestive of throwing, casting, and pulling out by means of a rod, and for another expression for " line - fishing " in seerous doogo (Amos iv. 2).

Now with regard to the New Testament, according to our Rabbins (Baba Basra, 73a) the seerous doogo were light craft similar to the cobbles used by the fishermen of Bridlington, with and without oars, roped to the bigger vessels sailing the Mediterranean and the Spanish seas, the Yom Aspamia of B. B., 74b. These were known to them as bitsis, and were used for line- fishing with rod and hook in the open sea to catch pilot-fish, mackerel, salmon, &c.; to convey their takes to shore, for trans- portation overland to the markets of Jerusalem, Safed, or Tiberias (ibid., 75a) ; to bring back fresh water in barrels (ibid. f 73a) ; and to act as tenders for the convey- ance of provisions, goods, and passengers