Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/513

 and tragum, which is found in the ancient Glossaries and in Isidore of Seville.

We find mention of the sean more especially for the capture of the tunny and of the pelamys, which were the two principal kinds of fish caught in the Mediterranean. Lucian speaks of the tunny-sean, which was probably the largest net of the kind, and he relates the circumstance of a tunny escaping from its bag or bosom. The sean is thrice mentioned in the Epistles of Alciphron (l. c. and lib. i. epp. 17, 18.), and in the two latter passages, as used for catching tunnies and pelamides. We read also of a dolphin ([Greek: delphis]) approaching the sean ; but this might be by accident. It was not, we apprehend, employed to catch dolphins.

In the following passage of the Odyssey (xxii. 384-387) we have a description of the use of a sean in a small bay, having a sandy shore at its extremity, and consequently most suitable for the employment of this kind of net:

[Greek:           Hôst' ichthyas, housth' haliêes Koilon es aigialon poliês ektosthe thalassês Diktyô exerysan polyôpô; hoi de te pantes Kymath' halos potheontes epi psamathoisi kechyntai.]

The poet here compares Penelope's suitors, who lie slain upon the ground, to fishes, "which the fishermen by means of a netcorresponds exactly to jactus in Latin, and that the drawing of the net into a circle is clearly indicated: [Greek: bolon ichthyôn pantas en kyklô sagêneusos].—Vita Mosis, tom. ii. p. 95. ed. Mangey.]—Epist. Saturn. tom. iii. p. 406. ed. Reitz.]—Timon, § 22. tom. i. p. 136.]—Ælian, H. A. xi. c. 12. In this chapter the same net is twice called by the common name, [Greek: diktyon].]