The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-04-06
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FISH IN MYTH IND RELIGION.
Their Earliest Nrention-As Gods--My tho
lnoic Tales

tales of the jewellers of the sea have
| played part In the mythical and sa-
cred literature of the world. Some of
these stories, which are found among
peoples widely apart in culture and pc
Rod. are much alike in essentials or
have some common features.
There is an Egyptian story which has
come down from the days of Khufu, the
builder Of the greatest Of the pyramids,
who reigned about 1850 B. c., which Is
preserved in manuscript 400 years
old In the Berlin mueum 1t has been
translated by Maspero, Petrie and 9TH
ers. An officer of the royal household,
| learning of the unfaithfulness of his
wife through a trusty servant, made
| and enchanted a wax crocodile seven
! fingers long, and threw it into the lake
where his wifes paramour had come to
| battle. The crocodile became seven GU
bits in length, and, quickly swallowing
| the unfortunate man, held him impris-
oned for seven days, when. at the COM
| mand of the king, who had been in
formed of the affair, he delivered up his
victim, and became again seven fingers
of wax, until, at the kings pleasure, he
was again returned to the water and
| given his prey, and neither was seen
any more; but the faithless wife was
| burned, and her ashes were cast into
| the river.
| According to the historian Berosus,
who was priest of Bel at Babylon,
about $50 B. c., there came out of the
Persian Gulf an animal endowed with
reason called Cannes. The whole body
of the animal was that of a fish, but
under the fishs head he had another
head, and also feet below, growing out
| of his f1sh's tall, similar to those of q
man; also human speech; and his inn
age Is preserved to this day" This
fish god spent the day In instructing
the people in arts and sciences, and at
sunset plunged back into the sea. At
ter him there came other rulers like
him, and 1t was 259,000 years after the
appearance of Cannes before the first
human kings, ten of whom reigned 691,-
200 years before the deluge came.
The Assyrian god Hea came up out
of the waves, with a fish's head and
the body of man, instructed the peo-
pie, brought civilization and taught
them to build temples. Before ventur-
ing on the sea, sacrifices were made to
this god, and a golden fish tossed into
the waves as an offering.
Dagon, to whose house the Phillis-
tines carried the Ark of God, was rep
resented by statutes part man and part
fish. The Syrian Derceto was half wo-
man and half fish. The Hindu Durga
was pictured as man emerging from
the mouth of fish. Teocipactli, a fish
god Of the new world escaped from the
flood In the hollow trunk of cypress
tree and repeopled the world.
Manabozho, a god of the Algonquin
Indians, while angling for the king of
fishes, was swallowed by him, canoe
and all, but he so skilfully used his war
club that the fish was fam to throw
him into the sea. He prevented this by
guiding his canoe across the throat OF
the fish, and holding 1t there until, with
his war club, he had finished his cap
tor. The latter then drifted ashore,
and the sea gulls made an opening for
the imprisoned god to escape.
In Hindu story Saktiveda, lover oil
the kings daughter, was shipwrecked
and swallowed by great fish, which
drifting to the island Of the king OF
fishermen, was caught and opened by
the servants Of the king, when Saktl-
veda came out unframed.
yishnu was incarnate in fish, ant
saved the founder of the human race
from the deluge. A little fish appeared
to Manu- one day In his bath, saying
to him, Take care Of me, and one day
/ will be thy saviour" AS instructed
he preserved the fish in Jars, and bull
ship, which he fastened to the horr
Of the fish, by whom the vessel wa
lowed on to the high land, and hell
till the floods receded, when NAM
alone of all the human race was saved
Fish were carved on ancient tomb
: because they were supposed to carr.
the soul across the sea to the islant
, of the blest. According to the Talmut
1t would take a ship three days to sal
from head to tail of one of the mon
sters of the deep. According to Aral
authorities the earth rests on the bacl
of the whale, and the devil is constant
ly trying to persuade the fish to div
: and upset the world There Is in 81
| PETERSBURG Inc IldHuSCIlpI Va oil E3S y
tan tale dating about 200 B. c., of
shipwrecked traveller, who, after tire
days in the sea, reached an enchante'
, island, where he was fed with mfracu
lous fish and fruits, and carried by
serpent fifty cubits long to the bosom
of his family of seventy-five children
and kindred serpents, where he was en-
;, tertained for some months and assiste'
+, to depart, on a vessel touching at tn
E island, for his home.
l When the old king of Troy had boun
> his daughter Hesione to the rock as
| sacrifice to the monster of the deer
to appease the anger of the sea god
Hercules sprang full armed into hi
throat, and hacked away upon him 70
three days before he was subduet
when the warrior came forth unharm
ed, and claimed the princess whom h
had saved.
p The mother of Andromeda boosted c
= her daughters beauty, and angered Pc
= seldom, who could only be appeased b
the sacrifice of the daughter to the sc
o monster from whose jaws she was res
5 cued by her lover, Perseus. 1t had bee
j revealed by the oracle of Amman tina
Y Andromeda's sacrifice was all tina
. could satisfy the wrath of the ruler {