68 ST. KENTIGERN. 



the ancient see, a salmon with a ring in its mouth is 

 said to record a miracle of St. Kentigern, the founder 

 of the see, and the first Bishop of Glasgow. 



" They report," says Spotswood, " of St. Kentigern, 

 that a lady of good place in the country, having lost 

 her ring as she crossed the river Clyde, and her 

 husband waxing jealous, as if she had bestowed the 

 same on one of her lovers, she did mean herself unto 

 Kentigern, entreating his help for the safety of her 

 honour ; and that he going to the river after he had 

 used his devotion, willed one who was making to fish 

 to bring the first fish he caught, which was done. In 

 the mouth of this fish he found the ring, and, sending 

 it to the lady, she was thereby freed of her husband's 

 suspicion." 



The classical tale of Polycrates, says the very 

 clever author of "The Heraldry of Fish," related 

 by Herodotus a thousand years before the time of 

 St. Kentigern, is, perhaps, the earliest version of 

 the fish and the ring, which has been often repeated 

 with variations. The ring, says Herodotus, was an 

 emerald set in gold, and beautifully engraved, the work 

 of Theodorus the Samian ; and this very ring, Pliny 

 relates, was preserved in the Temple of Concord in 

 Rome, to which it was given by the Emperor Au- 

 gustus. 



In the Koran of Mahomet the legend of the ring, 

 and its recovery by means of a fish, is introduced. 

 " Solomon entrusted his signet with one of his concu- 

 bines, which the Devil obtained from her, and sat on 



