[1121] Ibid., II. 8, ii. (3, 4). Neither the value nor the valour of the fishes seem worthy of onlookers. Perhaps the husband had invented—China seems to have anticipated most of our inventions—and was displaying the Double Spey or Steeple cast. But a rod, like a wedding, invariably attracts a crowd, as a stroll on the Seine any Sunday will verify. Some years ago Mr. Kelson and I were trying a new salmon rod, faute de mieux, from the south bank of the Thames. In ten minutes the Surrey side of the Waterloo Bridge was black with folk, hoping, perchance, to witness a capture of the mythical Thames salmon.
[1122] Apud Werner, op. cit., 277.
[1123] In 325 b.c. Chinese silks were sold in Greek markets (Werner, op. cit., Table III.), while by the first century b.c. there was a brisk trade in them with Rome, through Parthia. Cf. Pliny, N. H., XXIV. 8, and XXXIV. 41; Virgil, Georg., II. 121; Horace, Epod., VIII. 15; Mela, III. 7 “ ... pretiosis vestibus in omnes terræ partes mittere solebant,” and Seneca’s protest Ep. 90, “posse nos vestitos esse sine commercio Serico.” Pliny, XII. 41, estimates that for luxuries from China, India, and Arabia, Rome was paying annually over 100,000,000 sesterces.
[1124] Eutropius, VII. 14.
[1125] Han Wu Ku Shih, apud Werner, op. cit., p. 278. Imperial hunting and fishing expeditions are described on the stone drums of the Chou Dynasty c. 750 b.c. now at Peking. See Journal N.-C., R.B.A.S., N.S., VIII. 146-152.
[1126] Ch’üeh Tzǔ, apud Werner, p. 276.
[1127] Antea, p. 238.
[1128] Antea, p. 243.
[1129] La Pisciculture et la Pêche en Chine (Paris, 1872) was written, not by a globe-trotter, but by an expert sent out by the French Government to report fully on Fishing in China.
[1130] See antea, p. 43.