And for making your line, observe this rule: first, let your hair be clean
washed ere you go about to twist it; and then choose not only the
clearest hair for it, but hairs that be of an equal bigness, for such do
usually stretch all together, and break all together, which hairs of an
unequal bigness never do, but break singly, and so deceive the angler
that trusts to them.
When you have twisted your links, lay them in water for a quarter of an
hour at least, and then twist them over again before you tie them into a
line: for those that do not so shall usually find their line to have a hair
or two shrink, and be shorter than the rest, at the first fishing with it,
which is so much of the strength of the line lost for want of first
watering it, and then re-twisting it; and this is most visible in a seven-
hair line, one of those which hath always a black hair in the middle.
And for dyeing of your hairs, do it thus: take a pint of strong ale, half a
pound of soot, and a little quantity of the juice of walnut-tree leaves,
and an equal quantity of alum: put these together into a pot, pan, or
pipkin, and boil them half an hour; and having so done, let it cool; and
being cold, put your hair into it, and there let it lie; it will turn your hair
to be a kind of water or glass colour, or greenish; and the longer you let
it lie, the deeper coloured it will be.
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