CHAPTER XXVI 
SACRED FISH 
ApaRT from the mythological fishes, the Addu and the Ant, 
which were supposed to accompany the boat of the Sun, we 
find others held sacred or worshipped in different Nomes or 
cities. 
Before considering these, I draw attention to the cut of a 
representation from Gamhud,! and to the account by E. Mahler 
of a Stele, attributed to Thotmes III., now in the Museum at 
Buda-Pesth.? 
Both are remarkable; for in both Fish takes the place 
of the usual Bird-Soul. As the Buda-Pesth Stele is unpublished, 
we have to depend on Mahler’s account. He tells us that in 
the ancient beliefs and myths of Egypt the fish was a symbol 
of eternity, and guided the boat which bore the dead to the 
waters of the blessed. 
The Gamhud illustration, attributed to the Ptolemies, who 
held fast to the tradition that the parts of Osiris were eaten by 
three fishes, one of which was the Oxyrhynchus, has a distinct 
interest, because here for the first time the Oxyrhynchus figures 
as a substitute for the Bird-Soul. 
The Buda-Pesth Stele probably deduces from Gurob, where 
there is, or rather twenty years ago was, a fish cemetery 
excavated by Petrie. Here, too, was a temple built by 
Thotmes III., and a smaller one erected in his honour. 
The idea of the dead man may well have been ‘“‘I have 
embalmed thousands and thousands of fish. Now then, one 
of you, in return do your best to secure for me immortality.” 
1 Ahmed Bey Kamal, Annales du Service des Antiquitds de lV Egypt, 1908, 
TX. 23 f., Pl. 1. 
2 Actes du IV* Congres International d’ Histoire des Religions, 1913, p. 97 f. 
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