442 FISH OF MOSES— JONAH— SOLOMON'S RING 



the development of the higher criticism and of comparative 

 mythology hardly draw the tensely interested congregations 

 of yore. 



Tylor points out that at the root of the apologue of Jonah 

 lies the widely-spread Nature-myth of the sea-monster or 

 dragon, of which the fight between 

 Tiamat and Marduk, and of 

 Andromeda and the sea-monster 

 are analogous developments, i 



Cheyne detects the hnk between 

 the original myth and the story 

 of Jonah in Jeremiah li. 34, "he 

 hath swallowed me up as a dragon : 

 he hath filled his maw with my 

 delicates : he hath cast me out," 

 and again in verse 44, " and I 

 will bring forth out of his mouth 

 that which he has swallowed up." 



Allusions to mythical dragons 



occur elsewhere, as in Psalm Ixxiv. 



13, " Thou breakest the heads of 



the dragons (or sea-monsters) in 



the water." The curious belief in 



a dragon or fish that swallows the 



JONAH LEAVING THE whale's moon sprcads wide. This draws 



MOUTH. fj.ojn Mr. R. C. Thompsons the 



R°s^hmidCo,^TS. fig'17" comment, " when it is remembered 



The picture shows that while that Jonah was swallowed by the 



the whale's gastric juices had . ^ ^^i ' for three days (the 



completely absorbed Jonah's & -^ ^ 



clothes and curls, they prevailed period of the moon's disappearance 

 hSe,?°g3™fiJ:Zi;.'"°"'>' °' at the end of the month), the coin- 

 cidence is well worth considering ; 

 especially as Jonah is the Hebrew word for dove, and it was 

 at Harriln, the city sacred to the Moon God, that the dove 

 was sacrificed (Al. Nadim, 294)." 



But whatever the " great fish," and whatever the story's 



1 An excellent monograph by Hans Schmidt (Joua Eine Untersuchung 

 zur vergleichenden Religionsgeshichte, Gottingen, 1907) gives 39 cuts. 

 ' Op. cil., p. 53. 



