Book 6 — CHAPTER VII. INDUSTRY: WEAVERS, GLOVERS, SOCK-MAKERS, CORDWAINERS, TANNERS, HATTERS, DYERS OF PURPLE, ETC., FISHERMEN.

In spinning and weaving the ancients evidently rivalled us, though without the aid of machinery. As far, indeed, as the former process is concerned, no machinery can rival the human hand, which, from its slight oily exudation^[1283] is enabled to communicate superior strength and evenness to the finest threads. Thus in Hindustân muslins were formerly produced, which, laid on the grass and wetted by dew, became invisible.^[1284] And there is no reason for doubting that the produce of ancient Greek looms rivalled those of Dakka. The fabrics of Cos^[1285] and Tarentum appear, in fact, from the testimony of the ancients, to have floated like a snowy mist around the female form, disclosing its whole contour like a gauze veil.^[1286] In flowered and variegated tissues,^[1287] too, they attained extraordinary 215excellence. The finest and most brilliant shot stuffs imitating the breast of the dove, flowered cloth of gold, and the weaving of gold wire itself, were known to the ancients. Silk, before that of China^[1288] was common in the west, they obtained from the beard of a sea shell; and lawn and cambric and open work, like Brussels or Valenciennes lace, were familiar to them.

Being ignorant of who was the inventor of the art of weaving, they attributed the honour to Athena, who imparted a knowledge of it to Arachnè,^[1289] a virgin of Mæonia, afterwards changed into a spider. But spiders were not long the only weavers among the Hellenes, who speedily invented the upright and horizontal looms, which, in after times at least, were constructed from the wood of the andrachnè.^[1290]

Among the finest and most elegant fabrics of Greece were those manufactured in the Achæan city of Patræ,^[1291] where the women being twice as numerous as the men, would alone appear to have worked in the factories, from which the greater number of the inhabitants, doubtless, derived their livelihood. The flax, from which the fine linen and head-nets^[1292] 216of this town were made, was not grown in the neighbourhood, but in the plains of Elis,^[1293] where alone, in Greece, the plant attained the highest degree of perfection, not yielding in fineness to the best produced in India, while it was possessed of superior whiteness.^[1294] The fine cloths manufactured from it sold for their weight in gold.^[1295] Another species of very fine flax was cultivated in the island of Amorgos,^[1296] where were likewise manufactured linens of the most beautiful texture, frequently dyed purple, on which account the word Amorgis^[1297] has sometimes been supposed to denote a purple stuff, though the fabrics of the island were as often white as of any other colour. In imitation of the Egyptians, they wove a sort of fine napkins, which were evidently used in the same manner as our pocket-handkerchiefs.^[1298]

Even from hemp, very superior cloths were produced^[1299] in antiquity, especially amongst the Thracians, in whose country this plant was found both in a cultivated and a wild state. It differed very little from flax, except in its superior height and thickness; and the fabrics manufactured from it were not to be distinguished from linen, save by the most 217experienced judges. From hair, too, they both wove and plaited a variety of garments, among which would seem to have been a sort of mantle for ladies.^[1300] Sacks, too, were manufactured from the same materials, together with socks, whips, and fishing-lines. The Egyptians, we may observe by the way, wove fine cloths and sails, and made ropes, from the fibre of the papyrus plant,^[1301] as the Indians did from a sort of grass or fine rush.^[1302]

In the island of Cos existed, from a very early age, the art of rearing silkworms and weaving silk. As these insects, however, fed on the leaves of the pine, the ash, and the oak, the white mulberry not having been yet introduced into Greece, the silk they produced was very different in quality from that of China. The art of unwinding the cocoons and spinning the threads was invented by Pamphila, daughter of Plates,^[1303] who thus became the benefactress of her country, whose fabrics were universally admired for their delicacy, fineness, and transparency, since they allowed the whole form and colour of the body to be distinguished through them, like the gauze chemises worn by the Turkish ladies in the recesses of the harem.^[1304] Another kind of silk was manufactured by the ancients from the floss-like beard of the pinna marina, or silk-worm of the sea,^[1305] found on the coasts of Asia Minor, Sicily, and the Balearic isles. This kind of silk was evidently, at one period, held in the highest estimation, since we find the emperors of Rome bestowing robes of it as a mark of their imperial favour on the satraps of Armenia. In modern times, however, this branch of industry has been almost totally neglected, though very warm and beautiful winter gloves and stockings are still 218manufactured from it at Tarento. A pair of these gloves was considered of sufficient importance to be presented as a gift to Pope Benedict the Fourteenth.^[1306]

But not for lightness and fineness only were the silks and other delicate fabrics of the ancients valued. They were variegated^[1307] with stripes, lozenges, the figures of birds and other animals, sprigs, flowers,^[1308] and stars,^[1309] inwoven into their texture, and of the most brilliant and beautiful colours.

Occasionally, moreover, when the ground of the whole tissue was white, a border of fanciful scrolls, leaves, and flowers, intermingling their several tints, extended round the whole robe or mantle, which was sometimes also bedropped with asterisks of gold. Their flowered silks, and cloths of various colours, were worn, not only by ladies in their dresses, but occasionally, also, by vain young men, who thus exposed themselves to the derision of the multitude. Bed-curtains, too, and the hangings of apartments^[1310] were of variegated stuffs. In the manufacturing of tapestry^[1311] and drapery for the statues and temples of the gods, the greatest possible magnificence and beauty were displayed. Whole years were devoted to the production of a single piece, which exhibited views of landscapes and cities, together with figures of gods, and heroes, and groups of warriors, sometimes arranged in religious processions, at other times engaged in battle, where the scene, the combatants, their armour, their weapons, and the flowing gore were represented by various colours to the life.^[1312] In the manufacture of carpets, the Greeks displayed great taste and elegance, whether we regard the figures of animals, trees, or flowers, with 219which they were inwrought, or their pile, softness, and texture.^[1313] Many times when they had not been flowered by the hand of the weaver, they were adorned by the ladies themselves with sprigs, and leaves, and figures, in embroidery; sometimes of various bright colours, at others with threads of gold.^[1314] Even napkins in Egypt were embroidered with golden flowers,^[1315] as both these and all kinds of handkerchiefs still are throughout the East. In Greece, the fine soft vests which warriors^[1316] wore beneath their shirts of mail were usually figured with rich embroidery by the females of their family.

It appears to be generally supposed,^[1317] that silver threads were not employed until a very recent period, either in weaving or embroidery;^[1318] we find 220mention, however, in Philo Judæus,^[1319] of purple coverlets inwrought with silver and gold. But at length the love of show and magnificence rose to so high a pitch, that robes were woven entirely of threads of gold.^[1320] Ribbons also were manufactured of the same materials, and several fragments of these fabrics have more than once been discovered in cinerary urns at Rome, though the greediness of the finder has almost invariably led to their being melted down.^[1321] At a later period stuffs were woven partly of silk or woollen and partly of gold.^[1322]

Of gloves^[1323] the Greeks made little use, though they must have observed very early, that they were worn by the Persians, and probably by other nations of Asia.^[1324] Nay even among their own rustics they would appear to have been in fashion as far back as the heroic ages.^[1325] The principal customers, therefore, of the Hellenic glovers were the hedgers and ditchers, woodmen, and actors; for on the stage it was frequently necessary to appear in gloves,^[1326] either in order to disguise the colour or augment the size of the hands, or, as in the case of the Furies, to give them the appearance of being furnished with talons like those of the hippogriff.^[1327]

Stockings properly so called, were perhaps little known to the Greeks, though we find mention made of certain socks woven from the cotonaceous filaments of a species of river truffle,^[1328] which must have resembled them very closely both in form and texture. Besides, we see in works of art representations of this kind of sock reaching nearly to the 221knees, and somewhat loose, which may probably therefore have been woven. But the common sock, like the hat, was of felt,^[1329] and usually white,^[1330] fitting close to the foot and leg, and chiefly worn by women, with shoes or sandals,^[1331] and sometimes in lieu of them,^[1332] though in some cases it occupied the same place in the costume of the Greeks as it does in modern times.

The Hellenic cordwainers^[1333] appear in every age to have carried on a thriving trade, since all the world, with the exception of a few philosophers, went well shod. Their workshops seem to have been neatly furnished. The shoes already made, whether plain or gilded,^[1334] used to be ranged on shelves fixed up against the wall with fanciful brackets, while their lasts, pastepots, pincers, awls,^[1335] and other implements, were kept in armories, sometimes furnished with double folding-doors, four or five deep shelves, and extremely elegant in form. Their cutting-boards^[1336] were made from the wood of the wild pear-tree which being of a close hard grain kept their knives constantly in edge. Among the Israelites we find mention made of shoes of badger-skins.^[1337]

Of the various processes resorted to for tanning, dressing, and dyeing leather,^[1338] whether to be worked 222up into clothing, armour, shoes, or parchment, too little by far is known. We are merely informed that, in removing the hair from hides and skins, they made use of the berries of the white briony;^[1339] that, in preparing them for receiving any dye or colour, the seeds of the sumach^[1340] were employed; and that the bark of the fir-tree and the wood of the alder,^[1341] reduced to chips, entered into various preparations for dressing and dyeing.^[1342] Fawn-skins among the Thracians were prepared probably with the hair on,^[1343] for a sort of buskins,^[1344] and the skins of sheep,^[1345] and dogs,^[1346] beavers,^[1347] otters, and badgers, tanned in a variety of ways, sometimes with and sometimes without the hair, were appropriated to the manufacture of various articles of dress. Leather, moreover, was dyed of every bright colour,^[1348] purple, scarlet, and crimson, and occasionally gilded or flowered with gold,^[1349] for sandals, thongs, and other purposes.

The manufacture of hats and caps,^[1350] though a less important branch of industry than among the northern nations of modern times, afforded nevertheless employment to a pretty numerous class of persons. At Athens it was not fashionable in fine weather to wear a hat at all, chiefly, perhaps, because the practice was supposed to hasten the approach of grey hairs;^[1351] but in those seasons of the year when sudden 223showers were looked for, cautious persons seldom went abroad without their broad-brim, which being furnished with a long skin thong was suffered to fall back and hang over the shoulders. If they happened to be caught by the rain when not thus provided, they threw, like Strepsiades in the Clouds, a corner of their mantle over the head. These hats were of various shapes,^[1352] and manufactured of very different materials; sometimes square or lozenge-formed, like our college-caps: sometimes round with broad leaf^[1353] and low basinet crown; sometimes peaked atop with rim curling all round like the bell of the Egyptian lotos. There was another modification of the hat,^[1354] fashioned like a limpet-shell, and without a brim, chiefly worn by fishermen and poor operatives, and sometimes also by travellers.^[1355]

The cynic, Menippos, however, when making his round through Thebes, in the costume of a Fury, wore a broad-brimmed Arcadian hat, on which were represented the twelve signs of the zodiac.^[1356] Among the Macedonians, who in all things affected magnificence, the hats of the courtiers and nobles were purple,^[1357] like the tiara of the Persians,^[1358] which, however, was furnished with side-flaps, resembling a peacock’s wings. The most common material was felt, though they were likewise made of leather. Caps were ordinarily manufactured of dog, or sheep, or lamb skin.^[1359]

But if in some of these branches of the useful arts the Greeks approached, and, perhaps, equalled, the moderns, in another they probably excelled them; I mean in dyeing,^[1360] more particularly, that deep crimson, 224or purple, of which Greek and Roman authors so often speak with an admiration bordering on rapture. Winkelmann^[1361] is not far wrong in supposing there were two kinds of purple, the one containing a tinge of violet, or sea-blue, produced at Tarentum,^[1362] the other resembling our lake, known in antiquity as Tyrian dye. On the origin of this colour the ancients had many legends (for they loved to build a mythos on what they could not explain), from among which we shall select the most poetical. The Tyrian Heracles loved, they say, a nymph, who dwelt somewhere about the sea-coast, and her name, it is added, was Tyros. In visiting this young lady, Heracles, according to the custom of the heroic age, was accompanied by his dog, as we find Telemachos, in the Odyssey. This same dog, not having love to support him, grew hungry by the way, and espying a purple fish upon a rock, with its head protruding from the shell, he seized, and devoured it. On Heracles reaching the residence of the nymph, she observed the muzzle of the animal dyed of a bright purple, and, in the style of a froward beauty, declared she would never again see her lover until he brought her a dress of that colour. Now this hero, as all the world knows, or may learn from the comic poets, was always more remarkable for courage and gluttony than for invention. Love, however, on the present occasion, sharpened his wits. He discovered the fish, turned dyer, and, having produced such an article as the lady required, had the 225honour of being esteemed the inventor of the Tyrian purple.^[1363]

The writer to whom we are indebted for this fable, which he related for the amusement of Commodus, has preserved a valuable account of the purple fishery as carried on by the Phœnicians. They fastened, he observes,^[1364] a number of small bell-formed baskets, at regular distances, to a long, stout, and tough cable, capable of resisting the action of the sea. These baskets, like the eel-traps of modern times, were surrounded at the mouth with a circle of slender twigs^[1365] projecting inward, and almost meeting at the centre, resembling the bottom of a claret bottle, but with an opening through which the fish could easily force its way in, though the twigs closing with a spring behind it prevented its egress. To entice the prey, there was a bait in the basket, which, according to some, was a cockle, according to others, a frog, upon a hook,^[1366] so that assurance was made doubly sure. All things thus prepared, the fisherman conveyed the apparatus to a rocky part of the shore, where they let it down, having previously fastened to it a strong cord with a piece of cork at the end, that they might be able to discover and pull it up. Leaving their traps there all night and all the ensuing day, they generally took up the basket full. Then, pounding both shell and flesh together, to prepare it for dyeing they cleansed away all impurities with water, and boiled the whole in a cauldron. The blood, being of an oily nature, melted on coming in contact with the heat and acquired its rich colour. Not always did it assume the same tint, but was sometimes yellow, sometimes a deep violet, and, occasionally, some other shade. Into this whatever was dipped immediately took the tincture of it. 226Nor did it all fade in the sun; but, on the contrary, rejoiced in the rays of light, as it were, its brightness imparting additional brilliance, and heightening the bloom and splendour of its tints.^[1367]

Wherever, and by whomsoever, discovered, the purple was known in the time of Moses, who introduced it into the costume of the high priest, and among the ornaments of the tabernacle.^[1368] Homer,^[1369] too, speaks of purple among the colours worn by his heroes, for example, a large purple pelisse. Iris is denominated “purple;” we have mention, also, of a “purple cloak, of a purple ball wherewith to play;” “purple coverings,” of great beauty, for beds, or seats; “purple carpets;” “purple threads,” where the “sea-purple” is distinctly spoken of.^[1370] Again, in another part of the Odyssey, we find it said, that women wove the “purple cloaks.”^[1371] The President Goguet has entered into many useful investigations respecting the manner in which the Tyrian dye was used; but at the outset confounds the conchyliatæ vestes with the purple garments, though Pliny, on whom he chiefly relies, constantly distinguishes them. The dye was obtained from several kinds of shell-fish^[1372] found in the Mediterranean, the best on the island on which New Tyre was built.^[1373] Aristotle, who of all the ancients has best described the purple fish, observes, that there were several species, of which some were of considerable size, such as those caught near Sigeion and Lecton; while those found on the coast of Caria and in the Euripos were small. Generally, he says, such as inhabited bays or arms of the sea were large and rough, and contained a liquid of blackish hue, though 227sometimes it was reddish, and small in quantity. Some of these were a mina, or about seventeen ounces, in weight. Those caught close along shores, or about headlands were usually of small size, but the dye they yielded was of a ruddier tinge. In general, too, it was thought that those found on northern coasts produced a darker, those on southern coasts a ruddier dye.^[1374] Purple fisheries were carried on on the coast of Africa, near the island of Menninx, and on the shores of Getulia.^[1375] So, likewise, in Europe,^[1376] on the coast of Laconia,^[1377] whose purple was greatly celebrated; in the Euripos, as we have seen above;^[1378] and in the terrible southern bend of Eubœa, beneath the cliffs of Mount Caphareus.^[1379] An inferior kind of purple was obtained from the buccinum,^[1380] but the genuine dye was produced by the calchè alone. The colour was contained in a white vein about the neck, the remainder of the fish being of no value. To secure, this, however, it was necessary to take the fish alive, for at its death the colour fled. Having been carefully collected, and left to macerate in salt^[1381] during three days, it was mixed with a certain quantity of water. The whole was then boiled for ten days in leaden boilers over a slow fire.^[1382] After this the wool well washed, cleansed and properly prepared, was dipped into it. Here it was allowed to soak during five hours. It was then taken out, dried, carded, and thrown back, where it was suffered to remain till it imbibed the 228whole of the dye.^[1383] To this double-dyed purple the poets often allude. Thus Horace:

Te bis Afro

Murice tinctæ

Vestiunt Lanæ.^[1384]

And again where the Phœnician operation is spoken of:

Muricibus Tyriis iteratæ vellera lanæ

Cui properabantur?^[1385]

Elsewhere in enumerating the things, wherein the vulgar pride themselves, he once more enumerates purple garments—

Gemmas, marmor, ebur, Tyrrhena sigilla, tabellas,

Argentum, vestes Gætulo murice tinctas,

Sunt qui non habeant, est qui non curat habere.^[1386]

It was seldom or never considered sufficient to rely upon one species of fish. Usually several kinds were mingled together;^[1387] and to the mixture were added many other ingredients, as nitre, urine, water, salt, and the fucus—a kind of moss—by some writers supposed to be our argol,^[1388] found in abundance on the rocky shores of Crete.^[1389] The tint produced by this mixture resembled the colour of the amethyst.^[1390] For, under the word purple, the ancients included three distinct colours,—the first a deep violet with a black or dusky tinge, designed by Homer, when he speaks of the “purple wave,” or of “purple death.” This was the amethystine shade spoken of as so magnificent by Pliny; produced 229by the calchæ and buccina alone. The second which resembled deep scarlet or crimson, which is the colour of a ripe pomegranate, was the purple of Tyre and Tarentum. The third was the deep blue of the Mediterranean sea, when it begins to be ruffled by the winds; a variety produced by the buccinum alone, and always understood by the word conchyliata.^[1391] Near the Isthmus of Darien, a sea-snail has been discovered, which some have supposed to be the murex of the ancients. In dimensions it is about equal to the bee. Being of extremely rare occurrence, the Indian fishermen preserve it, when found, in a vessel of water until they have collected a sufficient quantity for dyeing a piece of stuff. They then, like the ancient Tyrians, pound it shell and all with a smooth stone or something which serves them for a mortar, which as the shell is extremely thin and frail is a task of little labour, and immediately dip the cotton yarn or stuff in the liquor thus obtained. The colour resulting from this operation is the richest purple that can be conceived, which instead of fading by being passed through water grows more lustrous and brilliant the more it is washed. Stuffs dyed in this manner are, as may be supposed, exceedingly costly, and on account of their beauty much coveted by the richest of the Indian women.^[1392]

The fucus above-mentioned, found on the shores of Crete, was sometimes employed separately in dyeing fillets, garments, and wool, and the colour thus produced was still more brilliant than that of the purple fish, though no means of fixing it could be discovered.^[1393] The purple of Hermione, however, preserved its lustre and freshness for centuries. 230Alexander, for example, found in the royal palace of Susa vast quantities of purple garments dyed at Hermione, which, though they had been laid up nearly two hundred years, exhibited all their pristine bloom and beauty; because, observes the historian, the wool had been previously combed with white oil, and the colour fixed with honey.^[1394] Even in Plutarch’s own time garments of equal age were to be seen, the purple of which had preserved its brilliance and splendour undiminished. Nay, a small pot of the dye was discovered at Pompeii which though covered atop with a thick tawny film had preserved all the deep tone and richness attributed to the Tyrian purple by the ancients.

In dyeing scarlet, the ancients made use of kermes^[1395] or cochineal, found in several parts of Greece, but imported likewise from various other countries. It was sometimes employed in giving the ground to purple stuffs.^[1396] Garments of this colour would appear to have been extremely rare among the Orientals, since the admiration excited in Darius by the scarlet cloak of Syloson, whom he saw walking in the great square of Memphis, can be accounted for only by supposing that he had never beheld the like before;^[1397] otherwise he would not have been so captivated by its magnificent colour as to press its wearer to sell it to him in the street. Syloson 231presented him the cloak as a gift; but afterwards, when Darius was king of Persia, he took care to proceed to court and make the circumstance known, upon which the generous prince overwhelmed him with his favours. This kind of dye appears to have been known in Greece from the remotest antiquity, since Simonides supposes that even the signal sail given by Ægeus to Theseus in his expedition to Crete was of a scarlet colour.^[1398] Sardis was celebrated for its scarlet,^[1399] whence the proverb,—to be dyed with the tincture of Sardis,—for, to be beaten black and blue. The ancients, however, generally mistook the insect for the fruit of the holm-oak, upon whose leaves it feeds; a circumstance which may be regarded as very extraordinary, when it is remembered that both the insect and the tree were daily under their eyes.

The wool of sheep is said by the Greek poets to have been dyed red on their backs by eating the madder plant.^[1400] The wool of brown sheep was spun, woven, and worn of its natural colour, as it is still by the rustics of several European countries. Dyes of every other colour were likewise known to the ancients; as bright flame and saffron-colour, pink, green, and russet grey;^[1401] deep and sky-blue, produced by woad;^[1402] and red by madder.^[1403] The Phrygian dyers made use of a kind of mineral^[1404] obtained from Cappadocia; and wool was sometimes dyed with a decoction of beans.^[1405] Among the Egyptians, linens, muslins, and all kinds of cloths were painted with flowers and figures, in a great variety of colours;^[1406] which was the case, also, among the Massagetæ, who 232impressed on their fine woollen cloths a multitude of patterns, which preserved their brilliance unfading to the last.^[1407]

As many kinds of woollens are wholly spoiled by common washing,^[1408] they were regularly, when soiled, carried by the Greeks to the fullers,^[1409] whose mill and trade are supposed to have been invented by Nycias of Megara.^[1410] These artisans made use of numerous earths and other substances in their operations; such as gypsum,^[1411] the Cimolian earth and the Chian, the Lemnian, the Sardian, the Umbrian, the Samian, the Tymphæan, and the Chalastræan.^[1412] Wool, previous to being spun, was cleansed by soap-wort.^[1413] In washing clothes they commonly made use of a lye prepared with lime or wood ashes.^[1414] Sponges were blanched in the following manner:^[1415] over such as were extremely soft they sprinkled a quantity of salt-fish, collected from the rocks, after which they were carefully washed, and laid in the summer sun with their hollow part uppermost. They were rendered still whiter by being saturated with salt froth or sea-water, and exposed during a succession of calm summer nights to the moon’s rays.

The extent and importance of the Grecian fisheries^[1416] may be inferred from the prodigious quantities of fish eaten in every part of Greece; for although they knew nothing in antiquity of those long fasts during which the members of the Greek church in modern times, ceasing to prey upon the dumb inhabitants of terra firma, let loose their voracity against those of the sea, they were no less 233partial to this kind of food than their descendants,^[1417] as will have been seen from a preceding portion of this work. Fisheries were accordingly established on nearly every part of the coast of Hellas, as well as of those islands and distant colonies of which she became mistress.

Thus a celebrated lamprey^[1418] fishery existed on the Faro of Messina, an eel-fishery at Syracuse,^[1419] another 234for taking the purple fish, on the eastern coast of Eubœa, a second on the shores of Laconia, a third at Sigæum in Asia Minor, and a fourth in the neighbourhood of Tyre and Sidon.^[1420] Whales and dolphins were caught in the Mediterranean, and in the Black Sea; thunnies in the same sea, on the Bosporos, in the sea of Marmora, in the Hellespont, in the Adriatic, and in nearly all the eastern parts of the Mediterranean. Many kinds of smaller fish afforded employment to numerous bodies of men in the gulfs and bays of Attica and the Peloponnesos; and flourishing sponge-fisheries were carried on along the coast of Crete, and in several other parts of the Archipelago.^[1421]

In seas frequented by sharks, sponge-fishers necessarily incurred much risk. They therefore carefully observed every circumstance denoting the absence of danger, as for example, the appearance of the anthias,^[1422] which is supposed never to be seen in the neighbourhood of any voracious sea-monster; for which reason it obtained from the Greeks the name of the Sacred Fish.

The divers engaged in this trade made use, moreover, of many contrivances to diminish the toil and hazard of their dangerous calling. Sometimes they poured oil^[1423] upon the waves, which rendered them at once more tranquil and translucent and enabled them the better to carry on their operations at the bottom of the sea. They made likewise the first step towards the invention of the diving-bell, by descending with a large vessel turned upside down upon their heads, taking care that its edges sank into the water at the same instant, by which means 235they carried along with them a quantity of air, and were enabled to continue a considerable space of time beneath the surface.^[1424] A diver and his daughter are said to have performed good service for their country during the Median war; for, descending into the sea during a tempest, they loosened the anchors of many Persian vessels, and thus set them adrift to perish by the weather; in remembrance of which services, a statue was erected to both father and daughter at Delphi.^[1425]

The business of fishing was pursued in much the same manner as in modern times. Great numbers of smacks,^[1426] of all dimensions, crowded the narrow seas between the islands and the main, making sometimes pretty long voyages, and taking passengers to augment their gains.^[1427] These, moreover, formed the principal nurseries for the Grecian navies,^[1428] particularly those of Athens, which consequently were manned, in the better ages of the republic, by the hardiest and most expert seamen in the ancient world. They employed in their operations both the harpoon and various kinds of large nets;^[1429] and the ease and rapidity with which they filled their vessels may be inferred from the accounts given in modern times of the vast shoals of fish of all species and dimensions which in spring time collect 236in the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean, and pour in such multitudes into the narrow stream of the Dardanelles and the Bosporos,^[1430] that, with one sweep of a net, the fishermen are enabled to fill whole skiffs, while they may be taken by the hand from the shores, killed like birds with stones, caught with unbaited hooks, or by the women in common baskets, let down by ropes from the windows of such houses in Constantinople^[1431] as happen to stand on the beach. Elsewhere the fishermen made use of stop-nets in rivers or along the sea-coasts where the water for some way out was shallow. Various kinds of baskets,^[1432] also, they had recourse to, together with the rod and line. Even that barbarous method, still in many parts of Europe put in practice by the vulgar, of poisoning the waters, was known to the Greeks, who, for this purpose, cast into streams or ponds the pounded leaves of the Euphorbia Platyphylla.^[1433]

On the land-locked seas, also, and lakes, and rivers, they pursued that striking and romantic species of fishery^[1434] carried on at night,^[1435] in which a 237flaming torch held at the boats’ bows allures the fish to the surface, where by their bright eyes and glittering scales shining through the transparent water, they directed the aim of the fisherman’s trident.^[1436] A small fleet of this kind of boats dispersed over a smooth sea under the lea of woody headlands or rocky shores, each with its bright red light, gliding noiselessly^[1437] hither and thither, discloses a scene of singular beauty to the imagination. In the paintings of Herculaneum,^[1438] we find a landscape representing a group of fishermen immediately before day, when the dusky shadows are beginning to be dispersed by the first straggling rays of light which barely enable us to distinguish the boats, the nets, the rods, the fishermen themselves, and the picturesque shore on which they are at work.

One of the most profitable of the Greek fisheries was that of the thunny, which commenced about the rising of the Pleiades and terminated shortly after the setting of Arcturus.^[1439] As this animal always moves about in troops, and swims near the surface of the water, which it visibly disturbs in its progress, at the same time blowing sportively, and uttering a loud noise, the fishermen, on the shores frequented by it, constantly stationed a number of watchmen along the beach, some perched aloft on the summits of cliffs, others on detached rocks, 238rising out of the waves, or in trees, or on the top of masts set up at certain distances along the coast, that they might give notice of the approach of the thunnies.^[1440] As soon as the signal was given the fishermen pushed out with their barks, making a wide circuit, so as to take the fish in flank. Then letting down their long nets furnished with leaden weights to sink them, and with cords^[1441] wherewith to draw them up, they formed themselves into a semicircle, which rapidly narrowing round the shoal drove them towards the land, by which means the greatest number were either taken in the nets, or speared by tridents.^[1442] Respecting one of these fishing stations, on the coast of Cypros, a very romantic anecdote is related.^[1443] The inhabitants we are told, having sculptured a marble lion, which they adorned with emerald eyes, set it up on the tomb of a prince of the country named Hermias,^[1444] upon 239an eminence overlooking the sea. The splendour of the emerald, penetrating through the waves, scared away the thunnies, which in truth are remarkable for their timidity, so that the fishermen of that part of the island must unquestionably have been ruined had they not discovered the property of their lion’s optics, and substituted in lieu of the emerald, eyes less terrible to the pusillanimous herds of Thetis. A circumstance almost equally extraordinary is related of the strait by which the stream of the Bosporos disgorges itself into the Propontis. Here they say a rock of marvellous whiteness is discovered on the Asiatic side through the waves in the neighbourhood of Chalcedon, which by its brightness scares away the thunnies, both in their way to and from the Black Sea. The ancient naturalists remark, that the thunny in this part of its migrations observes steadily one course, keeping generally on the Asiatic side in the ascent to the Pontus, where, excepting the seal and the dolphin, nothing destructive to fish is found, and, after making the circuit of its shores, returning to the Ægæan close along the coast of Europe.

This proceeding they account for by supposing that, of its two dull eyes, the right sees best, and that, in obedience to the guidance of this peeper, it makes the circuit of the sea in the manner stated. A better reason may be, that its peculiar food^[1445] is most 240plentiful on the Asiatic coast in spring, and on the European in autumn, if, after all, we are to regard the fact itself as well established.^[1446] In this traject, however, it seems in reality, for some cause or another, to shun the vicinity of the City of the Blind, which constituted, perhaps, one of the principal causes of its inferiority to Byzantium. Nevertheless, a very delicate species of pelamys,^[1447] caught there, was known in the commerce of the ancient world, and transported to all parts of Greece.

We have remarked above, that the taking of the thunny commenced in spring, when it appears to have been in excellent condition, and very highly prized. During winter, whatever may have been its quality, it was not to be caught, since it retired to the depths of the Ægæan, beyond the reach of nets or tridents. In the heat of summer it was rendered lean and flabby by the persecution of a kind of worm, which, insinuating itself beneath the fins,^[1448] harassed it incessantly. But, towards autumn, being delivered by nature from this pest, it again became plump, and was esteemed excellent eating. The growth of this fish is extremely rapid, more especially in the Black Sea, where, amid the vast quantities of mud and slime brought down by the numerous rivers, it finds in great abundance the food most congenial to its taste.^[1449] The thunny, properly so called, is at present^[1450] scarce along the coast of Mingrelia, where, by the ancients, it is said to have 241abounded, which renders it not improbable, that they included under this name more than one species of sturgeon, a fish still found in great numbers in those parts of the Black Sea.

The method of taking the pelamys^[1451] has been graphically described by an ancient writer. A well-appointed and swift bark, putting to sea with her rowers, dashed out as rapidly as possible into deep water, upon which one of the crew, stationed at the stern, let down the tackle. This consisted of two strong ropes, one on either side, to which were attached a number of small cords, each with a hook at the end, baited with the Laconian purple fish, and garnished with a feather of the sea-mew, which, glancing hither and thither in the currents of the sea, assisted in attracting the eye of the pelamydes. The boat then traced various lines upon the surface of the deep, now skimming in this direction, now in that, until it was followed by a shoal of fish, which, coming up with it, voraciously gorged the baits until not a single hook was left without its prey. Upon this the rowers desisted from their toil, and, pulling up the ropes, generally found their boat laden with the take.^[1452]

The manner in which the thunny is taken on the coast of Chili may, perhaps, be worth mentioning for the sake of comparison. As soon as the Indians discover a shoal of these fish near the shore they put to sea on large sealskin floats inflated, like bladders, with air, carrying with them a sharp-pronged trident, fastened to a tough and very long rope. They then approach and pierce the fish, which, immediately upon being struck, darts out to sea with prodigious celerity, the Indian, meanwhile, rapidly uncoiling his rope till the strength of the thunny is spent through loss of blood, after which he draws 242back his prey, and, raising it upon his float, returns to the shore rejoicing.^[1453]

It is probable that, in this manner of fishing, the Indian draws near the thunny while asleep,^[1454] as we find to have been often the practice among the Greek fishermen, who when they went forth at night, at which time the thunny is exceedingly drowsy, were attracted towards their prey by the white belly of the fish sleeping quietly on the surface of the water. Many other kinds of fish also appear to have been taken while asleep, notwithstanding that in general their slumbers are brief. Thus flat-fish, nestling in the sand or mud, were discovered through the transparent water, and pierced with the trident. So likewise the sea-dog, the gilthead, and the mullet, were taken by day, with the trident, while asleep; otherwise it has been thought they could scarcely be touched by this instrument. The skate and other fishes of the Selachian tribe were sometimes found to sleep so soundly, that they could be taken by the hand.^[1455]

On the shores of the Chelidonian isles there was a celebrated anthias fishery which was carried on in a peculiar manner. The fishermen putting to sea in their bark, and clad in garments of a sober colour, sailed backward and forward daily in the same place and at the same hour. By this means, the anthias, which in great numbers frequents that part of the sea, became accustomed to the sight of the vessel, and by degrees approached it, one of the shoal generally preceding the rest. To him the fishermen threw out something of which the anthias is fond, and continued to do so until the fish became so tame that they would eat food from 243his hand. A hook was then introduced into the bait, and as the fish crowded around the bark in prodigious multitudes, they were caught rapidly, and handed to a second person, who threw them into the bottom of the boat upon heaps of soft rags, lest by their bounding and struggling they should make a noise and frighten away their companions. The shadow of the boat assisted in concealing this manœuvre from the fish. It was considered necessary to spare the anthias which first approached, since, being probably a kind of leader, his disappearance instantly put all the rest to flight.^[1456] Sometimes it is said multitudes of these fish were collected round the boat by the striking of two bits of wood together in the manner of castanets.^[1457] The Milesians^[1458] possessed close to their city a very lucrative fishery chiefly of the sea-dog,^[1459] which there attained a larger size than anywhere else. This is supposed to have been owing to an extensive lagoon of fresh water, having however with the sea a channel of communication through which these fish found their way in, where they grew tame and fat, and were taken in great numbers.^[1460]

At a point on the gulf of Smyrna, a productive fishery is at present carried on in a very ingenious manner. The shore being low and level, a continuous sweep of reed-fences is stretched along, so as to enclose a considerable space of water, and furnished at intervals with gates, which are raised occasionally for letting in the shoals. The avenues are then closed, and the fish taken with facility. On the coast of China a similar fishery is found, lines of mats being substituted for reeds.^[1461]

244There was a small, but apparently productive, fishery in the canton of Marathon.^[1462] The right of fishing in the salt stream of the Rheitæ was secured by law to the priests of Eleusis,^[1463] whose city was famous for the scombros as well as for soles or turbots.^[1464]

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