PREFATORY NOTE. 



The range of this Handbook is so extensive, that it is 

 obviously impossible to accomplish more than a super- 

 ficial review of its subjects in the compass of ninety 

 pages. For it traverses Primitive Zoolatry (glancing at 

 Totemism and Sacred Fish-myths), Zoological Mythology, 

 Legendary Art, the Folk-tale of all nations, Fables, the 

 Sciences of Heraldry and Astronomy — and Modern Folk- 

 lore. Moreover, following the liberal " fish-idea " of the 

 Exhibition, it has been necessary to wander from the 

 cetaceans on the one hand through fishes proper to the 

 Crustacea and molluscs on the other. So that not only in 

 Unnatural, but in Natural History also, the range of this 

 Handbook is of necessity very wide. I have contented 

 myself, therefore, with bringing a few leading thoughts 

 into prominence — the antiquity of the Religious Fish- 

 myth, its dignity, its importance in Totemism, the benign 

 aspect of Fish in the Folk-tale, the persistence of ancient 

 fancies in modern superstitions. Such subjects are not, I 

 take it, to be treated with a uniform gravity ; at the same 

 time their intrinsic importance should never be lost sight 

 of. It is in this humour that I have written, and fully 

 conscious that the magnitude of the matters of which I 

 have to treat — Animism in its largest and latest aspects — 



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