12. Dry your sheep’s blood in the air, upon a dry board, till it become a pretty hard lump; then cut it into small pieces for your use.
13. When you use grain, boil it soft, and get off the outward rind, which is the bran; and then if you will, you may fry the same in honey and milk, or some strong-scented oils, as polypody, spike, ivy, turpentine; for Nature, which maketh nothing in vain, hath given the fish nostrils, and that they can smell, is undeniable; and I am persuaded, more guided by the sense of smelling, than sight, for sometimes they will come to the float, if any wax be upon it, smell at it and go away. We see also that strong scents draw them together; as, put grains, worms, or snails, in a bottle of hay tied pretty close, and you will, if you pluck it out suddenly, sometimes draw up Eels in it. But I never yet made trial of any of these oils; for when I had the oils, I wanted time to try them; or when I had time, I wanted the oils: but I recommend them to others for trial, and do purpose, God willing, to prove the virtue myself, especially that ointment so highly commended by J. D. in his Secrets of Angling.[3]
[3] In the edition of 1613, duod. the receipt here referred to occurs at the end of the volume:
Would’st thou catch fish?
Then here’s thy wish;
Take this receipt
To anoint thy bait.
Thou that desirest to fish with line and hook,
Be it in poole, in river, or in brook,
To blisse thy bait, and make the fish to bite,