SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



In one of his " ava- 

 tars," or incarnations, 

 the god Vishnu "the 

 Preserver," is repre- 

 sented as issuing from 

 the mouth of a fish. 

 He is celebrated as 

 having miraculously 

 preserved one righteous 

 family, and, also, the 

 Vedas, the sacred re- 

 cords, when the world 

 was drowned. Not only 

 is this legend of the 

 Indian god wrought up 

 with the history of 

 Noah, but Vishnu and 

 Noah bear the same 

 name — Vishnu being 

 the Sanscrit form of 

 "Ish-nuh," "the man 

 Noah." The word 

 " avatar " also means 

 " out of the boat." In 

 fact the whole myth- 

 i ology of Greece and 

 i^ Rome, as well as of 

 Asia, is full of the his- 

 tory and deeds of Noah, 

 which it is impossible 

 to misunderstand. In all the representations of a deity 

 having a combined human and piscine form, the original idea 

 was that of a person coming out of a fish — not being part of 



FIG. 6. — FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU. 

 After Calmet and Maurice. 



