Section 2

Thereon speaks the fisher and makes the man, his customer, hear: "A curse on thee, a curse on thy buyers, a curse on thy bell, 3 a curse on thy boat for not filling up. Thou hast brought no salt and sprinkled it over thy fish which thou boughtest, so that the fish of thy boat will not be stinking and thou then canst sell for hard cash. Next, hast thou no meal and no dates brought, no salt . . . hast thou brought. If then thou comest with empty hands, one who is of fair favour has no dealing with thee. Go, go, thou godless [fellow], buy not from us to do business with thy fraudulent scales. Thou holdest them down to buy at false weight, [then in selling] keepest them up with thy elbow and gettest ten for five. Now does thy buying flee away, and thy buyer, and is as though it never had been. Thou dost complain of the . . . of men and dost cherish no noble thought." When the Chief Fisher, the Head of the race of the Living, the highest of all catchers of fish, heard this, he said to him (? Anōsh): "Bring me my . . . , hand me the squbrā , 1 that I may make a call sound forth into the marsh, that I may warn the fish of the depths and scare away the foul-smelling birds that pursue after my fish. I will catch the great sidmā , 2 and tear off his wings on the spot. I will take from him * * * and will blow into my squbrā . A true squbrā is it, so that the water may not mix with pitch." When the fishers heard the call, their heart fell down from its stay. One calls to the other and speaks to him: "Go into thy inner ground. For there is the call of the Fisher, the Fisher who eats no fish. His voice is not like that of a fisher, his squbrā not like our squbrā . His voice is not like our voice, his discourse not like to this world." But the fishers stand there; they seek not shelter in their inner ground. As the fishers stand there and are thinking it over, the Fisher came swiftly upon them; he opened the cast-net, divided ... . He cast them bound into the ... . He tied them up with knots. They speak to him: "Free us from our bonds, so that thy fish may not leap up to our boat. We catch not those who name thy Name."