6 FISHES OF FANCY. 



by legendary exploits, or by accidents of honour. Thus 

 the dolphin and the tortoise, or the haddock and the John 

 Dory. It was a crab that retrieved the crucifix of St. 

 Xavier from the sea — 



" Nor let Xavier's great wonders pass concealed, 

 How storms were by the almighty wafer quelled ; 

 How zealous crab the sacred image bore, 

 And swam a catholic to the distant shore ;" 



and to a codfish that Scandinavia owed its recovered 

 crown. Was it not a fish that guided the Vedic ark to its 

 resting-place, the hill-peak Naubandha? and from a fish- 

 pond (according to Arabic legend) that Moses was rescued 

 by Pharaoh's daughter ? When the demons had usurped 

 Solomon's throne, and the monarch was an outcast in his 

 dominions and jeered at as a sort of Perkin Warbeck, a 

 preposterous claimant, a fish found the omnipotent signet- 

 ring, and so enabled the king to reascend his throne. Did 

 they not give their names to a score of cities ? Is not fiih 

 one of the special foods promised to the faithful in the 

 paradise of the Moslem, with, hard by, that tree from Sinai 

 that yields sauces " for them who eat " — a kind of paradi- 

 saical cruets. The heirs of France take their name from 

 a " fish " ; and have not fishermen given three kings to 

 Persia and an emperor to Rome ? 



But just as many have thus adventitiously arrived at 

 celebrity, so many others have accidentally fallen into 

 disrepute. The mackerel can hardly be a proud fish, 

 recollecting its traditional imputations, nor lobsters go 

 haughtily. The character of this crustacean in legend is 

 perhaps worth a passing remark, for it is curious that while 

 the crab ever holds a place of honour, the lobster should 

 be always disreputable. Very old engravings show us a 



