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This is perfectly clear from ready examples: no one wants to have an angler s rod too thick, though it needs elasticity to withstand the thrashing of such fish as are caught; men select, rather, a slender rod so that it may not cast a broad shadow and arouse suspicion. Cf. Gow on Theocritus, xxi. 10. In the next place, they do not thicken the line with many plies when they attach the loop and do not make it rough; for this, too, betrays the lure to the fish. They also contrive that the hairs which form the leader shall be as white as possible; for in this way they are less conspicuous in the sea because of the similarity of colour. The remark of the PoetHomer, Iliad, xxiv. 80-82.: Like lead sheIris going to visit Thetis. sank into the great sea depths, Like lead infixed in hora of rustic ox Which brings destruction to the ravenous fish - some misunderstand this and imagine that the ancients used ox-hair for their lines, alleging that keras It means, of course, horn as above in Homer, Iliad, xxiv. 81. means hair and for this reason keirasthai means to have one’s hair cut and koura is a haircut Or lock of hair. and the keroplastes Horn-fashioner, so called from the horn-like bunching together of the hair: see the scholia on Iliad, xxiv. 81. in ArchilochusEdmonds, Elegy and Iambus, ii, p. 126, frag. 57; Diehl, Anth. Lyrica, i, p. 228, frag. 59. See the note on 967 f supra. is one who is fond of trimming and beautifying the hair. But this is not so: they use horse-hair which they take from males, for mares by wetting the hair with their urine make it weak. Cf. Mor. 915 f - 916 a. AristarchusNot Aristotle, as the mss. read. See Platt, Class. Quart. v. 255. declares that there is nothing erudite or subtle in these lines; the fact is that a small piece of horn was attached to the line in front of the hook, since the fish, when they are confronted by anything else, chew the line in two. The section of horn was put around the line. It was therefore a tube. It was in front of the hook as one held it in his hand and attached it to the line. It was therefore at the hook end of the leader. Its hardness prevented the line from being severed. Its neutral coloration prevented the fish from being frightened off. Note that Oppian (Hal. iii. 147) comments on the use of a hook with an abnormally long shank for the same purpose (Andrews). They use rounded hooksA prototype of the Sobey hook. to catch mullets and bonitos, whose mouths are smallSee Thompson on Aristotle, Historia Animal. ix. 37 (621 a 19); Mair on Oppian, Hal. iii. 144.; for they are wary of a broader hook. Often, indeed, the mullet suspects even a rounded hook and swims around it, flipping the bait with its tail and snatching up bits it has dislodged; or if it cannot do this, it closes its mouth and purses it up and with the tips of its lips nibbles away at the bait. Cf. Pliny, Nat. Hist. ix. 145; Oppian, Hal. iii. 524 ff.
