The Canton advocate. [volume] (Canton, D.T. [S.D.]) 1877-1897, 1881-01-06
NO. 3S.

was the fowling of the Egyptians. The
lakes and marshland of the Delta and
the reedy marshes which in MANY
places line the banks of the Nile have
ever been the resort Of innum erablc
wild fowl. Hence, fowling appears tc
haxe been general pursuit. The pro.
fessional fowler, who followed it for his
livelihood, used nets and traps; but the
sportsman brought the birds down with
the throwstick-a stick made of heavy
wood, from foot and quarter to two
feet in length and about an inch and a
half in breadth, slightly curved at the
upper end, and which, being flat, and
thus encountering but little resistance
from the air in its flight, could be
thrown to a distance, and, when thrown
by dexterous hand, with considera-
BILE accuracy of aim. The method OF
proceeding appears to have been to
creep in punts made by the papyrus,
as noiselessly as possible into the reeds,
the height of which concealed their ap.
proach, till, the birds rising, the sports
man was enabled to use the throw
stick, an attendant being at hand, who,
as fast as one stick was thrown sup
piled another. Three of the most spir-
tied sketches in Sir Gardner Wilkin-
sons collection are representations of
such fowling parties. Strange to say,
in two of them there appears a cat,
employed to act the part If a retriever
in getting the fallen birds out of the
thickct.
No trace of hawking is to be found
IN the Egyptian paintings. The use
of the hawk species for the purpose of
towllng appears to have been unknown
to the Egyptians, as also to the Asia.
tics.
From their early contact with the
Egyptians it might have been expected
that the Jews would have acquired a
taste for hunting. But this does not
appear to have been the case. They
had, no doubt, occasion to destroy the
beasts of prey for the protec-
ton of their flocks and herds. From
the legend of Samson. and the state
ment ascribed to David that he had
slain a lion and a bear, and the story
of Benaiah, who is said to have slain a
lion in !, pit in time of snow, it would
appear that lions, though there is no
reason to suppose them to have been
numerous, were occasionally trouble
some in Judea. Several illusions in
the bible also show that the various de-
vices for taking both ground and wing
ed game were not unknown to the
Jews, and the express enumeration OF
harts, rebucks, and fallow deer among
the provisions daily supplied for the
household and table of Solomon,
shows that game of this description was
not wanting in Judea, and that its capture
was not neglected. But there is moth
ing to lead us to suppose that hunting
or fowling was generally pursued
as an amusement, or on an extensive
scale, as in Egypt or Assyria. The
prohibition as to eating the flesh OF
certain animals, as the wild swine, the
hare, and the coney, elsewhere the OBJ
jects of pursuit, but forbidden by the
Jewish law, no doubt on the suppo.
sition that their flesh was unwholesome
to man,-though we are at loss to see
why the flesh of an animal which chews
the cud but does not divide the hoot
should necessarily be unfit for man,
and still more so to account for the
lawgiver having fallen into the mistake
of supposing that the hare and coney
were animals which chewed the cud,--
have tended to check the practice OF
hunting, the pursuit Of the hare and
the wild boar, specially the former
forming generally so large portion OF
the hunters occupation. It does not
appear from the bible that the Jews
availed themselves of the service of the
dog in the pursuit of game. Possibly
the prohibition contained in the seven
teenth chapter of Leviticus against
eating the flesh of any animal that had
been torn may have led to the non-use
of the dog, a serious drawback to. the
success of the hunter, and which would
necessitate the use of the snare, the
trap, and the pitfall in substitution fol
the chase.