328 



SACRED FISH 



Herodotus ^ states that only two fishes are venerated, the 

 Lepidotus and the Phagriis. The Father of History is not 

 open in this case to the charge of exaggeration, for with these 

 the Oxyrhynchus, and (according to Strabo) the Lates niloticus, 

 and (according to Wilkinson) the Mceotes should be included. 



Various reasons are assigned for the veneration, local if not 

 national, of these particular fishes. Wilkinson suggests, \vith 



THE OXYRHYNCHUS TAKING THE PART OF THE USUAL BIRD-SOUL. 



From Ahmed Bey Kamal, Annales du Service des Antiquites de I'^gypt. 



a touch of ironical humour — " the reason of their sanctity {i.e. 

 the Oxyrhynchus and Phagrus) was owing to their being un- 

 wholesome : the best way of preventing their being eaten was 

 to assign them a place among the sacred animals of the country! " 



Some writers detect in their sanctity a remnant of local 

 Totemism, a word which in blessedness equals and in length 

 of inadequate definition surpasses Mesopotamia. 2 



1 II. 72. 



* For a description, not a definition of Totemism, see Robertson Smith, 

 loc: cit., or J. G. Frazer's four volumes on Totemism and Exogamy. The Oxford 

 Dictionary for once is not very helpful in, " Totemism, the use of Totems, 

 with a clan division, and the social, marriage, and religious customs connected 

 with it." 



