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CHAPTER IV. 



FISHES IN ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



Fashions in fish-eating — Pisces Regales — Fishes in Art — In Astro- 

 nomy — Legends of the Zodiac — In Astrology — Fish-gems. 



But eating is not, after all, solely a religious exercise, and 

 in the matter of fish, though the priests sometimes dictated 

 the bill of fare, the people as often chose their dishes for 

 themselves. Thus, in old Egypt, the priests abstained 

 from fish altogether, and therefore, when all the rest of 

 the people were obliged by their religion to eat a fried 

 fish before the door of their houses, they only burnt 

 theirs, without tasting them. So says Plutarch, and the 

 reason which he tells us the priests gave for their absten- 

 tion was, that fish was neither nice nor necessary. But 

 among the nation in general, the favourite kinds * were 

 the bnlti (Labrus Niloticus), the kishr (Perca Nilotica), 

 the beuni (Cyprius Benni or C. Lepidotus), the shall 

 (Silurus Shall), the shilbeh (the Silurus Schilbe Niloticus), 

 and aj-abrab, the by ad (Silurus Bajad), the karmoot (Silurus 

 Carmuth). 



As to the attitude of the Syrians towards such diet, I 

 find some difficulty. That their priests also abstained from 

 fish is tolerably certain, but it is difficult to reconcile the 

 statement, that in consequence of Derceto, a Syrian divinity, 

 having changed herself into a fish, the people of that 



* According to Wilkinson. 



