[856] II. 164. Cf., however, II. 47. It is not quite clear whether the order of the list is intentional. If so, it is certainly justifiable from the point of view of primitive or early society. [857] See p. 65, _antea_. [858] Herod., II. 149. [859] Diodorus Siculus, I. 52. Twenty-two different kinds of fish existed in the royal fish ponds of Mœris. Keller, _op. cit._, 330. [860] II. 98. [861] See Grenfell and Hunt, _Tebtunis Papyri_, II. 180-1, and I. 49-50. Also Wilcken, _Griechische Ostraka_, I. 137 ff. The craft employed were usually primitive rafts or canoes made of papyrus canes bound together with cords of the same plant. Theophrastus, _Hist. Plantarum_, IV. 8, 2, alludes to them. Pliny, _N. H._, VII. 57, speaks of Nile boats made of papyrus, rushes and reeds, while Lucan, IV. 136, refers to them in “Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro.” [862] II. 95. [863] See Alan H. Gardiner, _The Tomb of Amenemhat_ (London, 1915), Pl. II, and Petrie, _Medum_, Pl. XII. [864] _Onomasticon_, VI. 48. A primitive method of curing prevailed in the last century among the Yapoos—“the fisher then _bites out_ a large piece of the fish’s belly, takes out the inside, and hangs the fish on a stick by the fire in his canoe.” See Darwin, _Voyages of Adventure, etc._ (London, 1839), p. 428. [865] Mish., _Makhshirin_, VI. 3. The Greeks and Copts of the present day, whose enjoined fasts are frequent, rarely split their fish before packing them in large earthen pots. [866] _Rechnungen aus den Zeit Setis_, I. 87 ff. [867] Quibell, _The Ramesseum_ (London, 1898), Pl. XXXIII. [868] J. de Morgan, _Ethnographie Préhistorique_ (Paris, 1897), 193. [869] Cuvier and Valenciennes, _Op. cit._, XI. p. 62. [870] In Ridgeway, _The Origin of Metallic Currency_, etc. (Cambridge, 1892), p. 240, is illustrated a fine _Kite_ weight from which one _Kite_ would equal about 140 grains, corresponding to 9·08 _grammes_. [871] The information as to the average prices and weights of the _Mugil capito_, on which the above calculations were grounded, was obtained from the Department of Supplies in Egypt. “In the markets of Alexandria the weight of the grey mullet varies from 8 to 3 to the _oke_ (2·75 lbs.), say 5½ to 14½ oz. each. The _pre-war_ retail price was for large fish, 3 or 4 to the _oke_, 8 _Piastres_; for small, 8 to the _oke_, 5 Piastres.” The prices in August, 1920, had increased to 20 and 16 _Piastres_ respectively, or nearly two-thirds more. [872] Cf. _Pap. Oxyrh._ 1430, _Introd._ [873] _Pap. Oxyr._, III. 520, 21, A.D. 143. [874] _Berliner Griechische Urkunden_, I. 14, col. IV. 18. [875] _Egyptian Exploration Fund Annual Report_, 1906-7, p. 9. [876] Bk. II. 93. [877] _N. H._, V. 5. CHAPTER XXVIII FISHING WITH THE HAIR OF THE DEAD This chapter owes its birth to a passage of intrinsic interest but gruesome nature.