Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/500

 net consists of a very strong rope. Xenophon calls this [Greek: sardôn] (vi. 9). In the purse-net it was furnished with rings. The [Greek: arkyôros], or watchman, lay in ambush, holding one end of the [Greek: epidromos], which ran through the rings, and was fastened at the other end to the [Greek: peridromos], so that by pulling it he drew the mouth of the bag still more firm and close. He then went to the bag and despatched the quadruped which it inclosed, or carried it off alive, informing his companions of the capture by shouting.

In this treatise Xenophon distinguishes the nets used in hunting by three different appellations; [Greek: arkys], [Greek: enodion], and [Greek: diktyon]. Oppian also distinguishes the [Greek: diktyon] used in hunting from the [Greek: arkys]. The [Greek: arkys] or cassis, i. e. "the purse- or tunnel-net," was by much the most complicated in its formation. The [Greek: enodion], or "road-net," was comparatively small: it was placed across any road, or path, to prevent the animals from pursuing that path: it must have been used to stop the narrow openings between bushes. The [Greek: diktyon] was a large net, simply intended to inclose the ground: it therefore resembled in some measure the sean used in fishing. The term, thus specially applied, may be translated a hay, or a hallier. These three kinds of nets appear to be mentioned together by Nemesianus under the names of retia (i. e. [Greek: diktya]), casses (i. e. [Greek: arkys]), and plagæ (i. e. [Greek: enodia].):

Necnon et casses idem venatibus aptos, Atque plagas, longoque meantia retia tractu Addiscunt raris semper contexere nodis, Et servare modum maculis, linoque tenaci.

Cyneg. 299-302.

Xenophon, in his treatise on Hunting, further informs us, that the cord used for making the [Greek: arkys], or purse-net, consisted of three strands, and that three lines twisted together commonly made a strand (ii. 4); but that, when the net was intended to catch