CHAPTER XXXVI 
FISH IN OFFERINGS, AUGURIES, ETC. 
THE Sumerian records leave no possibility of doubt as to 
offerings of fish being made to the deities, not exclusively or 
specially to a deity of fish, They show Eannatum in early 
days offering at Telloh certain fish to various gods to secure 
their aid that the treaty which he had just concluded with 
the city of Umma might be maintained for all time unbroken. 
Similar offerings present themselves all through the history 
of Assyria. Numerous tablets detailing the nature of the en- 
joined offerings include fish, and as numerous receipts by the 
temples acknowledge offerings of fish.! In the course of time 
votive offerings in ivory and bronze, etc., according to King, 
took the place of actual fish.? 
The striking resemblance of the institution of the Scape- 
Goat in Palestine to the ancient Mashhulduppu or Babylonian 
Scape-Goat, both in object and high ceremonial ritual, is noted 
in my Jewish chapter. But we cannot for one moment 
assume that sacrifices and oblations in Assyria evolved from 
perhaps the earliest primitive, z.e. human, sacrifice, or followed 
the same lines as those of Israel or of Rome. In the first nation 
human sacrifice probably prevailed in the earlier times to a 
wide extent, and in the second (as Varro indicates) ‘“‘ Populus 
pro se ignem animalia mittit,’’ and even “‘ pisciculum pro 
animis humanis’’ became a not unusual and cheaper alter- 
native.4 
1 See Nikolski, Documents de la plus ancienne époque chaldéenne, Nos. 265 
and 269; this last tablet (c. 2900 B.c.) records the delivery of large numbers of 
fish of various kinds by fishermen for two great festivals. 
2 Cf. antea, p. 217, as regards Rome. 
8 Postea, p. 427. 
4 See Greek-Roman section, Chapter XVI. 
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