DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0352
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
265
fig. 222). To the right of the cook are seen two men working up round balls of shredded
fish. The first of these men has before him a jar which presumably contains either
chopped fish or oil; the second man holds in each hand a short stick with which he is
represented either as giving the balls their final shape, or as turning them over in the
sun. The preparation of such fish balls was anciently common among the Ichthyophagi
near the mouth of what is now the Persian Gulf. There the rude tribes drew fish from
the sea in nets whereof the cords were made of palm bark. They cured their fish in
ovens, or ate them raw, and also, as Strabo tells us, made cakes of fish dried in the sun
and then pulverized, the powder being worked up into cakes with real flour.22' The
Egyptian scene in fig. 226 may be illustrated by a quaint description, given by an old
traveler, of the preparation of fish on the Gambia: —
“The river being fallen, the women flock to it in abundance, and are exceedingly
busy in catching small fish like sprats, which they dry and keep by them as a dainty dish,
call’d Stinking Fish. As soon as they catch them (which is in a basket like a hamper, by
putting a little ball of paste at the bottom of it, and holding it under water a little while,
and then raising it gently) they lay them upon a clean spot of ground to dry; after which
they pound them in a wooden mortar to a paste, then they make them up in balls of about
three pounds each, and so keep them all the year round. A small quantity of it goes a
great way. . . .”228
Something not unlike this “dainty dish” finds its way to our own tables as ‘Bombay
duck’, probably the closest parallel to the dried fish balls or cakes of ancient Egypt which
civilized man is called upon to encounter. It should be borne in mind that primitive folk
have not those nice ideas about the soundness of dried foods which obtain among our-
selves. The writer just quoted remarks of the natives of Gambia that “fish dried in the
sun, or smoaked, is a great favorite of theirs; but the more it stinks, the more they
like it.” 229 This observation might be made with equal truth for the greater part of modern
Africa, and was, we may suppose, anciently applicable to Egypt unless there the con-
sumers were in this respect of an exceptionally squeamish turn.230
The fisherman disposed of their catches in the small markets at which, as today
at the local “aswak”, the Egyptian peasant has from time immemorial sold and
obtained his commodities. I have already cited an Old Kingdom representation of one
227 Strabo, XV, ii, 2 (p. 720 Cas.).
228 F. Moore, Travels into the inland parts of Africa. . . .to which is added Capt. Stibbs’s voyage up the Gambia,
London, 1738, p. 139.
229 Ibid., p. 109.
230 In addition to sun-cured fish, the Egyptians also appear to have used dried roe as well — at least, what looks
like drying roe is figured among the split fish in the tomb of Ti; Steindorff, op. cit. pl. 115, top. On this whole ques-
tion of fish curing cf. Klunzinger, op. cit., p. 307 sq.
265
fig. 222). To the right of the cook are seen two men working up round balls of shredded
fish. The first of these men has before him a jar which presumably contains either
chopped fish or oil; the second man holds in each hand a short stick with which he is
represented either as giving the balls their final shape, or as turning them over in the
sun. The preparation of such fish balls was anciently common among the Ichthyophagi
near the mouth of what is now the Persian Gulf. There the rude tribes drew fish from
the sea in nets whereof the cords were made of palm bark. They cured their fish in
ovens, or ate them raw, and also, as Strabo tells us, made cakes of fish dried in the sun
and then pulverized, the powder being worked up into cakes with real flour.22' The
Egyptian scene in fig. 226 may be illustrated by a quaint description, given by an old
traveler, of the preparation of fish on the Gambia: —
“The river being fallen, the women flock to it in abundance, and are exceedingly
busy in catching small fish like sprats, which they dry and keep by them as a dainty dish,
call’d Stinking Fish. As soon as they catch them (which is in a basket like a hamper, by
putting a little ball of paste at the bottom of it, and holding it under water a little while,
and then raising it gently) they lay them upon a clean spot of ground to dry; after which
they pound them in a wooden mortar to a paste, then they make them up in balls of about
three pounds each, and so keep them all the year round. A small quantity of it goes a
great way. . . .”228
Something not unlike this “dainty dish” finds its way to our own tables as ‘Bombay
duck’, probably the closest parallel to the dried fish balls or cakes of ancient Egypt which
civilized man is called upon to encounter. It should be borne in mind that primitive folk
have not those nice ideas about the soundness of dried foods which obtain among our-
selves. The writer just quoted remarks of the natives of Gambia that “fish dried in the
sun, or smoaked, is a great favorite of theirs; but the more it stinks, the more they
like it.” 229 This observation might be made with equal truth for the greater part of modern
Africa, and was, we may suppose, anciently applicable to Egypt unless there the con-
sumers were in this respect of an exceptionally squeamish turn.230
The fisherman disposed of their catches in the small markets at which, as today
at the local “aswak”, the Egyptian peasant has from time immemorial sold and
obtained his commodities. I have already cited an Old Kingdom representation of one
227 Strabo, XV, ii, 2 (p. 720 Cas.).
228 F. Moore, Travels into the inland parts of Africa. . . .to which is added Capt. Stibbs’s voyage up the Gambia,
London, 1738, p. 139.
229 Ibid., p. 109.
230 In addition to sun-cured fish, the Egyptians also appear to have used dried roe as well — at least, what looks
like drying roe is figured among the split fish in the tomb of Ti; Steindorff, op. cit. pl. 115, top. On this whole ques-
tion of fish curing cf. Klunzinger, op. cit., p. 307 sq.