ANCIENT ESTIMATION OF EISH. 51 



worsMp in Syria;* while in Bsetica it was offered with 

 the usual sacrificial crown and salted cakes to the im- 

 mortals. In hieroglyphics fish represent aU the cardinal 

 virtues and half the vices of humanity. To the Christian 

 they were early objects of interest and regard^ being the 

 symbol of the true faith, and often forming, with his 

 initials, the only epitaph on his tomb ; f for a like rea- 

 son, eflBgies of the Virgin are frequently seen in vesica 

 piscis between the Evangelists. One of the tribe is sup- 

 posed, in Roman Catholic countries, to have received 

 the indelible impress of an apostle's thumb; but lest 

 this mark of favour should make the individual bearing 

 it vain, the good St. Anthony preached, and afterwards 

 published, a three-quarters-of-an-hour's sermon to the 

 finny race collectively, who flocked round the preacher, 

 and are reported not to have winked an eye while he 

 instructed them in the whole duty of fish ! 



But it was on fish as viands, rather than as idols, 

 oracles, or objects of sentiment, that the ancient world 

 set most store. Some nations, as we learn from Hero- 

 dotus and Arrian, were called Ichthyophagi; but these 

 li-ring, like the Greenlanders, where little else could be 

 procured, became what the name imports from neces- 

 sity; other people however adopted this diet from choice: 

 ' we do remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt,' 

 is the complaint of the Israelites in Exodus, from which 

 it would appear that they preferred fish to freedom. The 

 Egyptians themselves were noted for an addiction to 



* Cicero. 



t The Greek word lx6vs contains the initial letters of .Jesus 

 Christ, Son of God, Saviour; and of the two Hues of thousands 

 of monumental stones that confront each other in lengthening 

 vista Lu the long gallery of the Vatican, the Christians to the right 

 are all distinguished by a fish, written or engraved, sometimes 

 both, while to the left, ' Dis ;manibus ' supplies that Greek word, 

 and a host of other devices supplant the fish. 



D 3 



