Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/492

 the wild beasts, was knotted with amber. The way in which the net was used by the Retiarii is well known. The head-dress called [Greek: kekryphalos], was a small net of fine flax, silk, or gold thread, and was also called reticulum. But by far the most important application of net-work was to the kindred arts of hunting and fishing: and besides the general terms used alike in reference to both these employments, there are special terms to be explained under each head.

The use of nets for catching birds was very limited, on which account we find no appropriate name for fowlers' nets. Nevertheless thrushes were caught in them, and doves or pigeons, with their limbs tied up, or fastened to the ground, or with their eyes covered or put out, were confined in a net in order that their cries might allure others into the snare. An account of the nets used by the Egyptians to catch birds is given by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, being derived from the paintings found in the catacombs. The net commonly employed for the purpose was the clap-net. Bird-traps were also made by stretching a net over two semicircular frames, which, being joined and laid open, approached to the form of a circle. The trap was baited, and when a bird flew to it and seized the bait, it was instantly caught by the sudden rising of the two sides or flaps.

II.

.

[Greek: ENODION, ARKYS.]

In hunting it was usual to extend nets in a curved line of considerable length, so as in part to surround a space, intoÆlian, H. A. xii. 46. Uno portante multitudinem, qua saltus cingerentur. Plin. H. N. xix. l. s. 2. Oppian (Cyneg. iv. 120-123) says, that in an Asiatic lion-hunt the nets ([Greek: arkyes]) were placed in the form of the new moon.]