THE ANCIENTS. 3 



Jordan ; and likewise of the different species which were 

 caught in the Orontes, and the Euphrates. The chief 

 portion, however, of the fish used for food in Judea, came 

 from the Mediterranean ; and we have the authority of 

 Nehemiah (xiii, 16) for the statement that Phoenicians of 

 Tyre lived at Jerusalem, who dealt exclusively in fish. 



In the Remains from Nineveh, there is a bas-relief of 

 the Fish-God (Khorsabad). Mr Layard says, " In a bas- 

 relief from Khorsabad representing a naval engagement, 

 or the siege of a city on the sea-coast, we have the god 

 nearly as described by Berossus. To the body of a man 

 as far as the waist is joined the tail of a fish. The 

 three-horned cap, surmounted by a flower in the form 

 of a fleur-de-lis, as worn by the winged figures of the bas- 

 reliefs, marks the sacred character. The right hand is 

 raised as in the representations of the winged deity in the 

 circle. This figure is in the sea amongst fish and marine 

 animals" 1 



The Fish-god of the Assyrians combined the human 

 shape with that of the fish. " The head of the fish," 

 says Mr. Layard, " formed a mitre above that of the 

 man ; while its scaly back and fan-like tail fell as a cloak 

 behind, leaving the human feet and limbs exposed. " . . . . 

 " We can scarcely hesitate to identify this mythic form 

 from the Cannes or sacred Man-fish, who, according to 

 the traditions preserved by Berossus, issued from the 

 Erythraean Sea, instructed the Chaldeans in all wisdom, in 



1 Nineveh, vol. ii, 466. 



