56 FISHES OF FANCY. 



recovery of Sakuntala's ring by a fish, which thus enabled 

 King Dasyanta to marry the lady of his love. 



From this fancy of the Aryan poet has descended an 

 immense progeny of treasure-retrieving fishes, and the ring 

 of Sakuntala, like the magic circlet of the Persian story, 

 has begotten innumerable rings exactly like itself. 



In the 'Arabian Nights' is the well-known tale of the 

 priceless diamond which the fisherman takes from a fish, 

 and which, placed on a shelf in the cottage, gives so much 

 light that they are saved all expenditure in oil, and which 

 when sold makes the family rich for ever and for ever. In 

 Scandinavian myths is that of the long-lost crown, which 

 the fishes kept safely down among the rocks, till the real 

 heir to the throne came a-fishing, when they rolled it into 

 his net ; in Russian, that of Ivan, who finds the all-impor- 

 tant ring by the help of the perch — the herrings try to 

 lift the casket to the surface, but fail, and so two dol- 

 phins come and put their shoulders to the wheel, and the 

 ring is regained ; in the Portuguese is one that tells us how 

 St. Peter's god-daughter is ordered by a mahcious queen 

 to dive into the sea to bring up a ring which she has 

 purposely thrown into the waves, but St. Peter restores 

 it to the little girl by making a fish swallow it and be 

 caught for the King's table. In the other story of the 

 Basket of almonds, the king of the fishes himself brings 

 up the key which the monarch has thrown into the sea, 

 its recovery being the price of the hero's marrying the 

 princess ; in the (?) Italian story of the White Snake the 



sate on the throne in Solomon's shape. After forty days the devil de- 

 parted and threw the ring into the sea. The signet was swallowed by 

 a fish, which, being caught and given to Solomon, the ring was found 

 in its belly, and thus he recovered his kingdom." . , 



