24 INTRODUCTION 
massive tomes of Ancient Peruvian Art by A. Baessler, nor 
The Fish in Peruvian Art by Charles W. Mead vouchsafe it. 
To the absence among the ancient Peruvians of any written 
language Mead attributes the very early arrival of conventional- 
isminart. In consequence of conventionalism, fish at the period 
reached are merely rendered as various designs, notably that 
of the “ interlocked fishes,” z.e. a pattern of parts of two fish 
turned in opposite directions, a curious example of which may 
be found in Mead, Plate I. fig.9. The mythological monster, 
part fish part man, in Plate II. fig. 13, compares and con- 
trasts with similar Assyrian representations. 
The tomes of The Necropolis of Ancon fail also to aid us. 
Among the hundreds of objects of Inca civilization depicted, 
nothing piscatorial, except some copper fishing hooks and a 
few spears, comes to view.! Joyce, however, gives a fishing 
scene depicted on a pot from the Truxillo district of the coast, 
which the author dates pre-Inca, or anywhere between 200 B.c. 
and a.p.2 
From his book emerge two interesting points of comparative 
mythology. The first—which compares with Assyrian and 
other similar legends 3—the tradition that culture was first 
brought to Ecuador by men of great stature coming from the 
sea, who lived by fishing with nets; the second—which 
compares with the Egyptian practice—the custom among 
certain primitive coast tribes of placing provisions, among 
which were fish, in the graves of the dead.4 
Other races of the world present many points of similarity 
to the French cave men. The Bushmen of Africa, and the 
Bushmen of Australia, inter alios, exemplify this. Banfield, in 
dealing with the drawings or so-called frescoes of men, animals, 
and fish on Dunk Island, vouches for the latter as “‘ of talent, 
1 Baessler translated by A. H. Keane (Asher & Co.), London, 1902-3. 
Mead’s monograph is in the Putnam Anniversary Volume, New York, 1909. 
The Necropolis of Ancon, by Reiss and Stibel, translated by A. H. Keane, 
Berlin, 1880-87. 
12 T. A. Joyce, South American Archeology, London, 1912, p. 126. 
3 See infra, p. 371. 
* Indian Notes and Monographs, published by the Heye Foundation, 
New York, 1919, p. 56, show in the tombs of Cayuga fish-hooks, harpoons, and 
fish-bones, “‘ most of which objects are unique or unusual as grave finds.” 
