FISH HIEROGLYPHS SUPPRESSED IN TOMBS 323 
were they forced by food pressure to rebel against it? Did 
the nobles in the Old and Middle Kingdoms occasionally wobble 
in their diet? All these questions meet with no adequate 
answer. 
An answer to the first, z7.e. the date and reason of the 
abstention, as yet baffles even the richness of the fertile pre- 
servative sands of Egypt, since adequate data must stretch 
back to pre-dynastic periods. 
One fact stands out. The lower classes very early eschewed 
the tabu and ensued after fish. Their example was followed 
later by the upper classes, “‘ with whom fish became a favourite 
dish: the epicure knew each variety, and in which water the 
most dainty were to be caught. It was, therefore, a most 
foolish invention of later Egyptian theology to declare that 
fish were unclean to the orthodox, and so much to be avoided 
that a true believer might have no fellowship with those that 
did.”’ 1 
Robertson-Smith declares that the doctrine—the highest 
degree of holiness can only be attained by abstinence—resulted 
from the political fusion in Egypt of numerous local cults 
in one national religion, with a national priesthood that repre- 
sented imperial ideas.? 
The statement, “‘ countless pictures of offerings to the gods 
and the dead survive, but never a fish among them ”’ has in 
the light of subsequent discoveries to be revised. One strong 
reason at any rate existed in its favour. In the Pyramid texts 
carved on the sepulchral chambers of the Pharaohs of the 
VIth Dynasty the hieroglyph of the fish was deliberately 
suppressed, which goes far to prove that fish were regarded as 
impure for kings. Furthermore, in the thousands of lines 
which contain spells for the future benefit of these dead Kings 
not one figure of a fish occurs. 
On the other hand, evidence exists of practices in apparent 
conflict with the above facts. Newberry,? provides two 
1 Erman, Egyptian Life, Eng. Trs. (London, 1894), p. 239, basing himself 
on Mariette’s statement in Monuments divers vecueillis en Egypte, pp. 151, 
152. 
2 Op. cit., p. 284. 
3 El Bersheh, Pt. I. (London, n. d.), Pl. XXIII, 
