THE MERMAID. 



193 



In one of his " avatars," or incarnations, the god Vishnu, 

 " the Preserver," is represented as issuing from the mouth ot 

 a fish. He is celebrated 

 as having miraculously 

 preserved one righteous 

 family, and, also, the 

 Vedas, the sacred re- 

 cords, when the world 

 was drowned. Notonly 

 is this legend of the 

 Indian god wrought up 

 with the history of 

 Noah, but Vishnu and 

 Noah bear the same 

 name Vishnu being 

 the Sanscrit form of 

 "Ish-nuh," "the man 

 Noah." The word 

 " avatar " also means 

 " out of the boat." In 

 fact the whole myth- 

 ology of Greece and 

 Rome, as well as of 

 Asia, is full of the his- 

 tory and deeds of Noah, 

 which it is impossible 

 to misunderstand. In 

 all the representations 

 of a deity having a 

 combined human and 

 piscine form, the 

 original idea was that 

 of a person coming out of a fish not being part of 



VOL. III. H. O 



FIG. 6. FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU. 

 After Calmet and Maurice. 



