466 CHINESE FISHING 



This time we have no excuse of hospitaUty, no fair Empress 

 before whose eyes our angler, as Antony with Cleopatra, wanted 

 to display his prowess, or a new cast. No ! he was " merely 

 amusing himself " — think of the crime ! — " by fishing in one 

 of the Palace lakes," 



But alas ! 'twas the fifth moon, when fishes were still busy 

 breeding the nation's common and ample staple of food. The 

 line raised for a fresh throw was suddenly cut by the Viceroy, 

 Ly-Ke. " What the deuce are you doing ? " thundered the 

 Emperor, aghast at the audacity of the act. " My duty,'* 

 quietly answered Ly-Ke. " All must obey the laws which 

 you have bidden me enforce." 



The voice is the voice of Ly-Ke, but the sentence and 

 sentiment smack of Mr. Barlow ! Such, however, is the power 

 of the " superior man," that the contrite autocrat not only 

 bestowed a present on the intrepid Atropos who shore his 

 line, but commanded that its severed bits should hang for all 

 to see in the ante-chamber of the Palace, as a warning to future 

 ages. 1 



Whether in ancient China a fish-god, such as Ebisu in 

 Japan, 2 or fish-gods existed, I have not ascertained, but in 

 our day the fishermen on the southern coasts celebrate in spring 

 or autumn a festival to propitiate the gods of the waters. An 

 immense display of lanterns lights the path for a huge dragon, 

 made out of slender bamboo frames covered with strips of 

 coloured cotton or silk : the extremities represent his gaping 

 head and frisking tail. The monster, symbolising the ruler of 

 the watery deep, is preceded by huge models of fish gorgeously 

 illuminated. 3 



But whether the Sinitic Pantheon lacked or held a deity 

 of fishermen, it was reserved for Hsii, the hero of one of the 

 stories in Liao Chai Chih I, to summon from the vasty 



^ For these two stories, see de Thiersant, op. cit., VII. H. 



* The earliest drawings represent Ebisu holding a red tai (Chrysophis 

 cardinalis) in one hand, and a fishing-rod in the other. In popular sketches 

 he is usually shown with a laughing countenance, watching the struggles of 

 the tai at the end of his line, or else banqueting with his companion gods on 

 the same fish. In placing a fisherman god among the Seven Deities of 

 Happiness the Japanese display shrewdness of observation and skill in 

 selection. 



» WilUams, op. cit., I. p. 8i8. 



