Page 8 - Geoffrey Budworth, Jason Dalton "The Little Book of Incredibly Useful Knots"

Learn just one helpful knot, use it often, and the cost of this book will be amply repaid.
Acquire several knots, and life will never be the same. For, just as being able to cook,

garden, swim, read a map, or administer first aid enhances self-reliance and impresses
friends, so “knowing the ropes” (being knotwise) is the key to fresh experiences.

Cave dwellers tied the first few knots; a piece of knotted fishing net, found in peat bog
in what is today Finland, has been dated to 7,200 BC. Now there are thousands of bends,

hitches, lashings, and loops, more than 200 of which are included here. Some have names
that still evoke how and by whom they were once tied: the wagoner’s hitch, highwayman’s

hitch, surgeon’s knot, farmer’s halter hitch, and hangman’s noose. Bellringers,
shopkeepers, linesmen and lumberjacks, trappers and tree surgeons all used a knot or two

peculiar to their trades or callings.