THE VIRGIN MARY AND RHOMBUS 439 
again, and its descendants have ever since preserved the same 
peculiarities of colour.’’ 
The half-destroyed fish which recovers life meets us also in 
the belief which unto this day lingers in some towns on the 
Black Sea, but on the Rhombus, 
not on the Sole, is the miracle 
wrought. 
According to a Russian legend, 
the tidings of the Resurrection 
were brought to the Virgin Mary, 
when at food: incredulous and as 
one of little faith she flung the 
uneaten half of a Rhombus into 
the water, bidding it, were the 
message true, come back to life 
whole! And lo! this it instantly 
did. 
Pictures of the Virgin, com- 
memorating the incident are 
painted on a Rhombus, nailed to 
a board, thoroughly dried, and 
ornamented with a background of . 
gold. A great ceremonial marks jonae eyrenma tHe wusie's 
their removal to a shrine her- MOUTH. 
metically sealed. The custom, i aebmlae fous 6 oe te 7 
no doubt, sprang from the belief 
that fishing enjoyed the special protection of the Holy 
Mother.! 
Mahometan tradition abounds with fish lore of the oddest 
kind. The commentators of the Koran vie, indeed, with the 
Talmudists in the curious subjects to which they often devote 
serious study, and in their grotesqueness of invention. The 
learned Rabbi el Bassam seems to have spent fifteen whole 
years in the vain endeavour to discover the name of the chef 
who made the pottage for Esau ! 
The story of the fishes, who made a point of coming every 
Saturday morning to tempt the Hebrews to the sin of catching 
1 See Keller, op. cit., p. 369. 
