FISHING AND FISH-HOOKS, ETC. 329 



tioned ; but the name also conveys the idea of a 

 produce of the soil That the knowledge of this 

 compound deity should have spread, as modern ot>- 

 servation has shown, to the extremity of Eastern Asia, 

 will appear the less remarkable when we are told 

 that the people of Babylon were also worshippers of 

 such a god ; and the reason assigned for it is, that he 

 perhaps in the person of some learned priest of that 

 faith had taught them many valuable truths, of 

 which, beyond doubt, something of the art of fishing 

 formed a part. This deity of the Babylonians w;is 

 called Odokon ; and on the reverse of a coin bearing 

 the figure of Dagon is that of a horse. It would be 

 strange if we could discover that to the earliest nation 

 or sovereign of fishermen we have been indebted for 

 the first taming of the horse to human dominion. 



J. C. 



