SOUTH AMERICAN FISH-LORE 
As in other regions of the world, fishes have been looked upon through the 
ages, by primitive peoples, with an interest often religious, often superstitious, 
and with certain mystic properties attributed to them. Thus they are commonly 
subjects of art, in common with other forms of animal life. Means (pages 74-77) 
shows examples of early Peruvian ceramic work decorated with fishing scenes— 
Fig. 13. The Rio Azupizu, a principal tributary of the Pichis-Pachitea-Ucayali 
complex. My pack-train fording the river on the Via Central. 
even with hook and line! Enock, Andes and Amazon, (page 217) alludes to the use 
of the fish symbol of Viracocha, the ranking pre-Inca deity. He finds in Viracocha 
a parallel to the Chaldean god of beginnings, Dagon. Padre Techo, 1608, Historia 
de la Provincia Jesuitica del Paraguay (see Church, page 255) says that among the 
Guaycurtis every man selected from among a number of eligible species one who 
was to be the patron and protector of his life. When offered fish of this species as 
food, he would refuse it as taboo. 
The significance to the peoples of the interior of the fish life is well exemplified 
in the many names of streams and places, especially the latter. The story of the 
Inca’s relays of runners for supplying his table with fresh fish from the coast, 
wherever he might be in his mountain realm, is one to appeal to the imagination. 
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