Section 3

When the fishers thus spake to me, I smote them with a club made of iron. I bound their traders on the shore which lends not . . . (?). I roped them with ropes of bast and broke up their ships * * * * . I burnt up the whole of their netting and the . . . which holds the nets together. I threw chains round them and hung them up aft on my ship's stern. I made them take an oath, took from them their mystery, in order that they may not catch the good fish,—that they may not steal them from me, stick them on a cane, hang them up, 3 I cut them in pieces and throw them into baskets (?) with laurel and aloe. They (the fishers) are laid low and cannot rise up. The nets ... ..., and they no longer stab the fisher-trident into the Jordan. They do not cut off * * * * * * and stand not in the river-lands p. 74 and make not their catch in the shallows. They cast not the cast-net therein and take not . . . and aloe. I spake to those who eat the . . . of the fish whose name is eel. They eat the eel and the . . . , which stands upright on its forefeet. They eat the ... ... ... ... . I bound them in the marshes of Deception, and they were caught and were tied up. Water from the Ulai they drink not and know not the way to the Kshash river. 1 I bound them fast in their ships, and threw out my ropes to the good ones. To them I speak: "Draw your boat up here, so that it runs not into the dike." As the Chief of the fish-catchers thus spake, the fishers made answer unto him and said; "Blessed be thou, a Fisher, and blessed be thy boat and thy bark. How fair is thy cast-net, how fair the yarn that is in it. Fair is thy cord and thy lacing, thou who art not like the fishers of this world. On thy meshes are no shell-fish, and thy trident catches no fish. Whence art thou come hither? Tell us! We will be thy hired servants. We will bake and stir about broth and bring it before thee. Eat, and the crumbs which fall from thy hand,—these will we eat and therewith be filled."