176 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



not artificially fed, only a fraction of them could 

 survive. The Pandits care for them, feed them, 

 protect them from injury, and, in return, derive a 

 small livelihood by displaying to strangers, in the 

 hope of reward, these living objects of their veneration. 



The introduction of the fish into the tank and the 

 kind care taken of them by their owners has greatly 

 changed the character of the fish. From a shy 

 creature defying the angler's skill, it is transformed 

 into an animal that regards man as its protector and 

 support. So fearless have they become that, when the 

 priest approaches the wall of the tank, the fish advance 

 to meet him, and either take the food directly from 

 his hand, or dash after the fragments, struggling and 

 leaping in such a seething shoal that the placid water 

 seems to boil within the tank. That a fish can 

 recognize its keeper and advance to meet him, and 

 that it can so change its mode of action as to appear 

 to regard man no longer as an enemy but as a friend, 

 seems to imply some degree of mentality and possibly 

 a dim shadow of consciousness. 



It has always seemed to me remarkable how feeble 

 is the manifestation of conscious life in the higher 

 fishes which possess a nervous system of such 

 comparatively advanced structure. The intensity of 

 their emotions is clear. The anger of the males in 

 sexual rivalry or their solicitude in parental love are 

 the outbursts of glowing passions that demand no 

 conscious effort for their fulfilment. But the fact that 

 these creatures can so change their existence under 

 unusual conditions as to hasten towards a being 

 that before would terrify them, and to behave in his 

 presence as though he were not an enemy but a 



