32 FISHES OF FANCY. 



near Delphi, sate a priest who delivered his oracles accord- 

 ing to the fish that his visitors saw in the waters below. 

 At the present day, if we go to the far North, we find the 

 elements under the control of the Spirits of the Sea, 

 irrespective of the powers of the land. 



That the Ocean appealed very strongly to the natural 

 reverence of humanity is thus abundantly in evidence, and 

 we find fish, therefore, occupying a very conspicuous place 

 in the world's beliefs. And apart from the creative powers 

 identified with fish and the divinities that held marine 

 dominion, the creatures of the water could claim the 

 special tutelage of Venus (under all her varying names), of 

 Apollo Opsophagus, and of Artemis, the guardian goddess 

 of fresh waters. In the Dagon form they found gods of 

 their own natural order in many lands, and in Scandinavia 

 knew Odin the All-father as a fish. The number of 

 deities, primitive and classical, that have at one time or 

 another assumed the piscine incarnation is very great, and 

 ranges from Vishnu, the Hindoo Jehovah, to Loki, the 

 Norseman's Mercury. 



Of subordinate fish-spirits there is a still larger number ; 

 which are graduated from the New Zealander's Tangaroo, 

 through the Genii of the Lake and the Gulnares of the 

 Sea, to the Arnarkuagsak and Ingnersuaks of the Arctic 

 regions, and thereafter dwindle away into mere maritime 

 goblins, Noks and Soetrolds, Grim and Fosse-grim, that 

 are only a superior sort of " Davy Jones." 



In mediaeval times the fish found, too, several Patron 

 Saints. St. Peter of course stands at the head, as a fisher- 

 man himself, and actor in the fish-miracles * of Holy Writ, 



* It is one of these, the finding of the tribute-money, that gives the 



haddock. 



" A superstitious dainty, Peter's fish," 



its legendary celebrity, the monks averring that it was a haddock 



